Australia is seeking to enhance its bilateral relations with the Philippines, particularly in the area of defense and security, trade and commerce.
The new Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Steven James Robinson, who started his tour of duty on Jan. 15, 2019, vowed to further enhance his country’s long-standing relationship with the Philippines since it was founded 73 years ago, especially in defense and security, development assistance and business ties.
During the “backyard barbeque” meeting with reporters at the ambassador’s residence in Makati City before the weekend, Robinson admitted that Australia’s relationship with the Philippines was “broad and deep”, which have been built on very firm foundation, and that “foundation rests on defense, security, intelligence ties, development assistance and business ties.”
“Since Marawi City siege, in particular, our defense and security ties have grown significantly . . . and that is very important to us,” he said.
Robinson vowed to improve Canberra’s “already very firm relations” with Manila during his three-year stint in the country.
“We are looking at enhancing the relations—our very already firm relationship across the board. We are looking at building defense and security links. We are also looking at increasing our development assistance to the Philippines,” he said, citing that Australia currently provides $85 million to development assistance.
In the next financial year, Canberra is expected to provide more development assistance funds to bankroll development projects in Mindanao.
“The next financial year will be devoted to the south where we are doing a lot of work in Mindanao. The Bangsamoro process, in terms of passing recently the Bangsamoro organic law, is very significant,” he said, adding that development assistance also relates to education, where some 12,000 Filipinos are now benefitting from it and studying in Australia on variety of course plus more than 60 Filipinos studying or doing their masteral and PhD education.
Robinson also pledged to work for improvement in trade and commerce between the two countries, noting that bilateral trade between Australia and the Philippines is comparatively small in comparison to other Asian countries.
“I really want to lift that quite significantly. So I’d like to improve Australian businesses that are already up here and investment into the Philippines. And also want to improve the investment from the Philippines into Australia,” he said, noting that more than 300 Australian companies are already operating in the Philippines, employing about 44,000 people.
“That’s very significant but I hope we can do lot more. And I want to do it well while I’m here,” he said.
Robinson said that he would like more Australian companies to take advantage of the investment opportunities in the Philippines, regardless of the industry.
“I do note that, obviously, there’s a lot happening in the infrastructure and the construction space. But I think there’s more opportunities than that. So pretty much, every area has opportunity for Australia,” he said
“Where we provide something that’s unique is in science and technology and innovation; they’re the things that Australia does very well. So solar, technology, wind farms and the like, that’s the stuff we’re really trying to focus upon,” the Australian envoy pointed out.
Robinson admitted that there was still a need for him to convince more businesses to expand their operations into the Philippines.
“Australian companies hear more about problems rather than the positive – unrest, they hear about problems in the south, they hear about terrorism, they hear about all sorts of things,” he said.
“Yes, they are issues but they are issues that are under control in a sense that we’re working with the Filipino government to deal with, but when you go to Metro Manila and you look at Clark, and you look at opportunities that exist around the country, there are many more opportunities, many more positives than negatives and that’s what I need to get across to Australian companies,” he said.