Former President Fidel V. Ramos has left for Taiwan with a delegation of some 60 sportspeople, businessmen and professionals from different parts of the Philippines along with members of the Taiwanese Chamber of the South Philippines led by its Founding President Chen Wen-Ju (“Tiger” Wood Chen) to engage with their Taiwanese counterparts.
The members of the two delegations will also participate in the 9th Taiwan-Philippines Friendship Golf Tournament (FVR Cup), an annual event that continues to provide a venue for business networking, new products search, as well as for sports competition and people-to-people bonding.
Per records from Du30 administration sources, Taiwan has remained a major investor throughout Southeast Asia with a particularly strong presence in the Philippines in the electronics, telecommunications, information technology, construction, textiles, mining, banking, electric power, food processing, pharmaceuticals and tourism industries. Taiwan, which is ranked as the world’s 24th largest economy is RP’s 7th largest source of foreign direct investments and 6th largest trading partner. Taiwan currently hosts some 90,000 Filipino workers and has consistently been a source of sizable development cooperation assistance, particularly in industrial design, agriculture, acquaculture, weather forecasting and technical skills training.
FVR is expected to call on/meet with high ranking government officials including President Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister Dr. David Lee, former President Ma Ying-jeou and former President Vincent Siew, the Taiwan External Trade Council as well as members of the business community in line with the RPDEV thrust of socieconomic-environmental-security diplomacy as globalization moves the 21st century forward to a one world community of nations as envisioned in the 2030 UN 17 sustainable goals.
As he always does in his foreign trips, FVR will meet and interact with the leaders and convenors of the Filipino community in Taipei.
As chairman of the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation, and as member of the governing/advisory boards of other international economic and strategic forums, FVR pursues his commitment to people empowerment, environmental protection, socioeconomic diplomacy, democratic governance, and Asia-Pacific security, in order to attract investments, trade, tourism, technology exchange and other forms of cooperation beneficial to the Asia-Pacific region in general and to the Philippines in particular—at no expense to the government.