DOHA (via PLDT) -- Qatar has expressed interest in investing in agricultural and fisheries projects in the Philippines, among other business ventures that are expected to draw more Qatari investments to the country.
No less than the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, told President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of his country's interest in undertaking agricultural and fisheries ventures in the Philippines during their bilateral meeting at the Emiri Diwan Royal Palace on Sunday.
During their meeting, President Arroyo also extended a formal invitation to the Emir to visit the Philippines, to which he gladly accepted. No dates, however, have been set but the Emir's Philippine visit is expected to materialize next year.
Qatar, which imports most of its agricultural requirements from various countries, is strengthening its economy by diversifying into new asset classes. The diversification program is being carried out by the government-owned Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
The President immediately directed the Department of Agriculture (DA), through DA Secretary Arthur Yap, to come up with the needed project proposals that would respond to Qatar's requirements.
Qatar has taken the first big step toward what is expected to be a growing presence in Philippine business and trade when it entered into a joint venture with Qatar Telecom (Telcom) in the wireless broadband business.
The joint venture, which was signed Sunday (Dec. 14) as part of President Arroyo's three-day visit here, joins the Philippines’ biggest diversified company and Qtel, Qatar's biggest telecommunications firm, under one group in their Southeast Asian operation.
The strategic partnership will set the course for the two companies to begin exploration of joint opportunities in the wireless broadband, mobile and mobile broadband sectors in the Philippines.
The government-owned Qtel operates in 16 countries and is "already actively engaged in extending its wi-tribe brand, which supports the provision of broadband wireless services for emerging markets. Wi-tribe has already realized significant success in providing Wi-MAX services in Jordan, and is in the process of rolling out new offerings for Pakistan," a company statement issued Sunday said.
PGMA to bring home $1 billion in new investments after 3-day official visit to Qatar
DOHA, Qatar (via PLDT) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo winds up today her three-day official visit here confident that the trip has generated for the Philippines US$1 billion in new investments, and raised to another level the friendly relations of the Philippines with Qatar, a leading destination of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
She leaves at noon (Monday, Dec. 15) on her return flight to the Philippines with a three-hour stopover in Abu Dhabi.
The President held various meetings with chief executive officers (CEOs) of several private companies employing Filipino workers as well as government officials, including executives of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) whom she asked to look into the prospect of doing business in the Philippines.
A state investment arm headquartered in this sprawling Middle East metropolis, the QIA serves as the spearhead of Qatar's investment expansion binge backed by the emirate's huge wealth from Qatar’s natural resources.
Awash with cash from its oil and natural gas exports, Qatar has launched a strong investment drive abroad while pursuing a massive construction program at home.
"As a world-class investor, the QIA adheres to the strictest financial and commercial disciplines. It has a strong track record of investing in different asset classes, including listed securities, property, alternative assets and private equity in all the major capital markets as well as the new emerging markets," says a backgrounder on the investment authority.
But the biggest investment draw for the Philippines from Qatar, thus far, is the tie-up between Qatar Telecom QSC (Qtel) and San Miguel Corporation (SMC), the Philippines' leading business conglomerate. The joint venture was formalized during the President's visit to Qatar.
Senior Qtel executives met with the President on Sunday (Dec. 14) to discuss potential areas of cooperation in Qtel's undertaking to extend access to broadband internet technology in the Philippines.
After the meeting, Qtel and SMC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the expansion and consolidation of the group's Southeast Asia operation. Ramon Ang, chief executive officer and president of San Miguel Corp., signed the MOU on behalf of his company, while Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Bin Saud Al-Thani, Qtel chairman, signed for Qtel.
Under the Qtel-SMC agreement, SMC will own 60 percent of the joint venture to Qtel's 40 percent. Qtel will put in an initial investment of US$150 million, but this will be raised to US$1 billion after one year.
After the formal signing of the accord, Qtel issued an upbeat statement view on its forthcoming Philippine operations, saying it sees a huge growth and expansion potential for the advanced telecommunications industry in the Philippines.
We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to meet with President Macapagal-Arroyo. Qtel has looked to increase its profile within the Republic of the Philippines and the environment appears increasingly open to external investment and the provision of communication services," said Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Bin Saud Al-Thani, Qtel chairman.
He added: "We see huge opportunities for growth and partnership within the Philippines and this meeting provided an important opportunity for Qtel to communicate its ambitions and its obligations to the people" of the Philippines.
Qtel, which is operating in 16 countries including in Southeast Asia, is vying for a slot among the top 20 telecommunications companies in the world by 2020.
A telecommunications service provider, Qtel is licensed by Qatar's Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology to provide both fixed and mobile telecommunications services in the state of Qatar.
San Miguel, on the other hand, is the largest publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company in Southeast Asia with more than 15,000 employees in over 100 facilities throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Qtel's tie-up with San Miguel is the biggest investment thus far by a Qatari company in the Philippines or in a Philippine-based business conglomerate. Up until the Qtel-SMC deal, Qatari investments in the Philippines were concentrated on human services, notably in the manpower supply sector, or the recruitment of Filipino workers for the Middle East.
But the President's meeting with Qatar business executives brought to the fore the untapped markets in Qatar and other Gulf countries for such Philippine products as mango -- a favorite fruit here -- fresh as well as processed Filipino food.
PGMA winds up successful official Qatar visit
DOHA, Qatar (via PLDT) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo left this noon at the end of her successful three-day official trip assured that no major displacements of Filipino workers in this country are in the cards.
Instead of the feared lay-offs, 27 of the biggest companies here employing Filipinos told the President Saturday (Dec. 13) that they are hiring 37,000 more Filipino workers.
The President was seen off by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who also welcomed her at the Qatar International Airport when she arrived here on Saturday.
En route back to the Philippines, the Philippine plane bearing the President will make a three-hour stopover in Abu Dhabi for a luncheon conference with top officials of the emirate.
DFA undertakes emergency employment and livelihood project
MANILA (PNA) — An emergency employment and livelihood project of the Department Foreign Affairs (DFA) has been given a boost with the signing recently of two memorandum of agreements (MOAs) to benefit dependents of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who reside in Pasig City.
A MOA for P20 million worth of Financial Assistance and Microfinancing for Entrepreneurship (FAME) is with the People's Credit and Finance Corporation (PCFC).
The other MOA with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is for P15 million of emergency employment for about 1,000 out-of-school youths in the lone congressional district’s 30 barangays.
Pasig City Rep. Roman T. Romulo arranged the projects with the PCFC and DPWH respectively, in support of OFWs suddenly displaced from their overseas jobs because of the global economic meltdown that also hit rich labor-receiving countries such as Taiwan and South Korea.
Edgar Generoso and Noel N. Poso, president and vice-president respectively of the PCFC, DFA Undersecretary Esteban B. Conejos Jr. and Romulo signed the MOAs on Friday last week. (PNA)
JPEPA “contributes to greater development” in East Asia--DFA
MANILA (PNA)-A new era in the Philippines` economic partnership with Japan has begin with the entry into force of the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) since Thursday last week, according to Secretary Alberto Romulo of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Romulo went to Tokyo last week for the inaugural Philippine-Japan Joint Committee Meeting on the JPEPA, and met also with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso.
In a dispatch from Tokyo, the DFA said both Romulo and Aso ``agreed that the JPEPA`s entry into force…contributes to the greater development of both countries as well as in East Asia.``
Romulo has proceeded to the Middle East to join President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo` s official entourage. (PNA)
DA to test planned pork exports
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will test local hogs in Mindanao that are sources of pork and pork products set for export for possible presence of the Ebola Reston virus despite having gone through rigorous safeguards as required by global animal health standards as a precautionary measure and to show that the Philippines is a “responsible exporter.”
DA Secretary Arthur Yap expressed optimism, however, that all hogs that in South Cotabato and General Santos City that are sources of pork and pork products set for export will test negative for the virus, which was found in a few hogs in two swine farms in Luzon, because the DA has stopped movements of animals from Luzon to the Visayas or Mindanao since 1995.
“As we clear those farms, then we are going to go back to our export track,” Yap said. “The truth of the matter is I’m personally confident that Visayas and Mindanao were not affected at all because since 1995, we have stopped moving animals from Luzon to Mindanao and to the Visayas.”
Officials of the DA and Department of Health (DOH) along with international health institutions have pointed out that the Reston virus “does not pose a significant public health risk.” This particular strain of the Ebola virus has been shown in the past to be “non-pathogenic,” which means it is not harmful to humans.
The Matutum Meat Packing Corp. in Polomolok, South Cotabato was set to make its inaugural export of pork and pork products to Singapore last Dec. 10, or on the very day when the DA and DOH first reported to the public the presence of the virus. Yap announced then that, as part of the DA’s precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus, it was suspending all planned pork shipments abroad until further notice.
Yap pointed out that all hogs that are sources of pork exports have passed the stringent requirements of Singapore health authorities on food safety, but the government will nonetheless subject these animals for testing as a matter of precaution.
“We want to establish very clearly that in the Philippines , we are responsible exporters,” Yap said. Given all the safeguard assurances, we still want to subject our farms to tests and we want to eradicate this virus.”
Yap said the DA and the DOH would seek assistance from international health agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) in eradicating the virus, which resurfaced after it was discovered 19 years ago among macaques or monkeys that the Laguna-based Ferlite Farms had been exporting to the Hazelton Research Product Laboratories in Reston , Virginia , USA .
The DA has already quarantined the two farms where the virus was detected.
The DA-planned support program will include the purchase of additional laboratory kits needed to check the presence of this virus among local swine as well as assistance to livestock growers whose infected hogs will be culled or destroyed by quick-response government teams led by the DA’s Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to prevent the spread of the Reston disease among animals.
Executives of international health institutions such as the WHO, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) or World Animal Health Organization have commended Yap and Health Secretary Francisco Duque for their respective offices’ quick or “appropriate action” in containing the latest resurfacing of the Reston virus.
AGAP party-list Rep. Nicanor Briones, who represented the subsector of small livestock stakeholders during the consultative meeting, also thanked Yap, Duque and WHO officials for educating the public about the Reston virus.
The Reston virus is entirely different from the three other Ebola subtypes, which are all potentially fatal to humans.
Unlike the Zaire , Ivory Coast and Sudan strains, the Reston strain has not been found to be fatal like the three other strains or to have caused illnesses to humans in contact with the infected animals.
The WHO and OIE consider the presence of the Reston virus in the Philippines as an “animal health issue and does not consider this a significant public health concern at this time.”
Earlier, Yap said that after finding out the presence of the Reston virus in the quarantined farms, 28 pig tissue samples taken from different locations in four different periods—May, June 4 and 26 and September—were sent to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Plum Island for testing. Only six (6) samples were positive of the virus.
Additional samples sent to the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa after these earlier tests, were all found to be free of the Reston virus. As of 6 pm Wednesday night, the RITM, which is the accredited laboratory in the country to conduct such tests, reported to the DA and BAI that, based on preliminary test results, the additional 94 samples collected from the pigs in the identified pig farms all tested negative of the virus.
WHO experts led by Dr. Nyunt and Dr. Julie Hall, team leader of its Emerging Infectious Diseases Division, have confirmed during the Dec. 10 consultative meeting at the DA that, based on historical evidence, the Reston virus has been found to be “non-pathogenic” and does not cause illnesses to humans in the past.
Yap said the WHO has also declared that pork that is properly handled, washed and cooked is safe for human consumption because heat from adequate cooking kills viruses, including Reston .
He pointed out that although “no current reports of unusual illnesses nor deaths in pigs have been reported, the DA and the DOH have engaged stakeholders in the hog industry, local and international health and animal experts, to assist the government in the pro-active eradication of this virus” and in the interest of transparency in government.
Besides tissue samples taken from pigs in the affected areas, Yap said tests were also done on the handlers in the farms where the virus originated; and even the butchers in the slaughterhouses where the animals were usually sent, as a precautionary measure. All the tests conducted on human samples yielded negative results for the presence of the Reston virus, he said. (DA-PRESS OFFICE)
