The Philippines is looking forward to a stronger partnership with Cambodia in the areas of food security, trade and commerce, and people-to-people exchanges, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said on Thursday.
During his bilateral meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet at the sidelines of the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, President Marcos raised the possibility of sourcing rice from Cambodia as well as further boosting commercial aviation between the two countries.
“I am a great believer of multi-lateral discussions but I also give equal importance to bilateral arrangements that we might do. Once again, I’m very happy to have had this exchange and I think, as I said, we’ve already identified so many areas that we can start off with,” Marcos told the Cambodian leader.
According to the President, this is just the beginning of a more enhanced collaboration with Cambodia. “I see that there’s so much room for growth, so much room for partnership.”
The Philippines is working towards ensuring food sufficiency, especially rice, after recently experiencing typhoons that have greatly affected local rice production.
It intends to request the Cambodian government to ease the terms and conditions for rice importers in the Philippines to ensure a steady supply of the staple coming into the country.
Initially, business-to-business sales deals between Khmer Foods company and rice importers in the Philippines resulted in the export to the Philippines of about 2,500 tons of rice in May this year.
This was the first time the Philippines is importing a significant tonnage of rice from Cambodia after the passage of the Rice Tariffication Law in 2019, which liberalized rice trade in the Philippines and allowed private entities, instead of the government, to import rice from any country, subject to compliance with sanitary and phytosanitary requirements and import duties.
Cambodian officials said their country is targeting to get a one percent share of the market of imported rice in the Philippines by 2024 and encouraged stakeholders to sustain and make more efforts to increase rice exports to the Philippines.
With regard to civil aviation cooperation, both countries agreed to expand the direct flights between the Philippines and Cambodia given the improvements in the COVID-19 situation and easing of restrictions.
“…I shall, as my homework when I get back, look into the possibility of our airline increasing the number of flights to other destinations in Cambodia that we would like to go to. This is something that goes both ways,” the President also said.
The President also mentioned the cultural, educational, and people-to-people exchanges between the Philippines and Cambodia that could be enhanced further.
“I’m very proud of our overseas Filipino workers and the teachers who have gone abroad and places. Many who’ve come from my part of the country and we have been able to assist our allies and our partners in terms of exchange of culture and the like,” Marcos said.
Accompanying President Marcos during the meeting were Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez, Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, and Presidential Communications Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil. PND
