|
LOW-LEVEL bilateral trade and the falling out of
economic relations since the end of the Spanish colonial
era put the Philippines outside of Spain’s circle of 11
priority countries for investments.
And at
the rate things are going, Rafael Aguilar, director for
investment and cooperation of the Spanish Institute for
Foreign Trade (Icex), said it would take long before the
Philippines could barge into this list of priority
countries.
Aguilar,
who is in the country as head of a delegation of 23
Spanish firms that are looking for opportunities here,
said the governments of the two countries should work
harder in improving the exchange of goods and
investments, as the economic relations tapered off since
the Americans took over the reigns of the Philippines at
the turn of the 20th century.
He said
the Philippines and Spain are just beginning to revive
economic ties. “We started late,” he said.
This, he
said, is evident in the low level of bilateral trade
between the two countries. In 2007 Spanish exports to
the Philippines amounted to only €119 million, while
Philippine shipments to Spain reached €235 million.
Jose
Luis Romero-Salas, president of the Spanish Chamber of
Commerce of the Philippines, said it is saddening that
Spanish firms are not showing too much interest in
investing in the country at this time when the growth
requirements of the Philippines in the areas of
infrastructure and energy are actually the competencies
of Spain.
“The
link of the
Philippines
and Spain is natural. We are in need of roads and
renewable energy, and is Spain is the world leader in
these fields,” Romero-Salas said.
He said
it is a positive sign that Icex has decided to bring 23
companies here to seek investment opportunities in the
fields of biofuels, tourism and leisure,
telecommunications, renewable and solar energy,
manufacturing, engineering, architecture, planning and
construction.
Romero-Salas said the twin visits of President Arroyo to
Spain and the efforts of the Spanish chamber probably
helped a lot in this renewed interest of Spanish firms
for the
Philippines.
Aguilar
said when Spain started to aggressively look for
investment opportunities elsewhere about three years
ago, 11 countries were identified as priority
destinations, including the US, Brazil, Mexico, Japan,
India, China, Korea and Russia.
He said
these countries were picked because of the big volume of
commerce that they have with
Spain.
In Asia,
Aguilar said their concentration is really on
China
and India.
To
stress the point, Aguilar said a similar investment
mission to China had 140 Spanish firms participating as
compared with only 23 here.
Romero-Salas said China and India are really the obvious
ones when it comes to attracting investments in Asia, so
what the Philippines should aim for is to become the
jump-off point of Spanish firms to Southeast Asia,
similar to the model of IT service provider Soluziona
Philippines, a unit of Indra of Spain.
He said
the main concerns of Spanish businessmen are the
economic legislation, sanctity of contracts and the
incentives being offered. |
