By Raymond Batac / Philippine Trade and Investment Center, Washington, D.C.
Conclusion
IN Washington, D.C., Undersecretary Nora Terrado met with officials from the Departments of Commerce and State, the United States Trade Representative and the Millennium Challenge Corp. to discuss joint efforts to further enhance our bilateral economic relations with the US. The undersecretary also served as the keynote speaker at a roundtable organized by the US-Asean Business Council (US-ABC), where she urged members to participate in the business activities organized by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under our Asean chairmanship in 2017, focusing on themes such as regulatory coherence; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); women and youth entrepreneurship; and innovation.
Terrado and the HIM delegates also had the opportunity to learn more on the new developments and technology in health care during their meetings and visits at the Texas Medical City, (TMC) Innovation Institute, Johnsons & Johnson Innovation, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Seton Medical Center-SFO and the UCSF-Benioff Hospital.
The success of the Healthcare and Business Process Offshoring Roadshow to the US demonstrated that US and Philippine economic relations, despite concerns during the first few months of the new administration, continue to strengthen and grow. US companies still look to the Philippines as the No. 1 choice for their information-technology/BPM requirements, and remain assured of the continuing support of both the Philippine government and the local industry in Manila.
The DTI, as your partner in government, will strengthen dialogues with our US government and private-industry partners to further enhance both administrations’ efforts to expand bilateral trade and investments.
With our collaboration, the delegation was able to surface business leads that, we are confident, would translate to potential future investments in the Philippines. Joint public-private promotion projects such as this send a unified message of continuity, predictability and viability to investors overseas, and guarantee our achieving full economic recovery in the medium term.