Manila is ready for the first RP-Kuwait Joint Trade Committee Meeting set to be held from Dec 19 to 21 , announced visiting Philippines Department of Trade and Industry Undersecretary Elmer C. Hernandez. The announcement was made during a press conference held at Arraya IO center in Kuwait City on Thursday.

It was also attended by Philippine's Commercial Counselor, Nic Bautista and Director of Special Programs Department of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry, Rudy Cana. Hernandez arrived in Kuwait as part of a five-country-tour to the Middle East to promote business in the Philippines as well as to personally notify Kuwait on its readiness for the upcoming joint meeting.

The event will be attended by the trade ministers of both the countries (Philippines Department of Trade and Industry Secretary) Peter Favila and (Kuwait's Minister of Trade and Industry) Rashid Al-Haroun. The agenda include signing an agreement of cooperation in areas of trade, tourism, energy and power generation sectors.

The trade agreement between Kuwait and the Philippines was established only in 1997. However, since the signing, no follow up meetings were held as yet. The RP-Kuwait Joint Trade Committee Meeting will be first between Kuwait and the Philippines since the establishment of our trade that is why we are looking forward to this historic event in Manila," he said.

Hernandez was on the on the last leg of their Investment Promotion Mission to the Middle East where he met his Kuwaiti counterpart Rashid Al-Tabtabae. At their short meeting, Hernandez discussed several issues on how they could closely cooperate in terms of investment and trade promotion with Kuwait. "The meeting was very productive and fruitful and I happened to brief him about the Philippines and the investment climate there in general," he said.

He also mentioned Tabtabae's great approval for the recent RP-Kuwait signing of avoidance of double taxation. "He was elated to the recent development because businessmen from the Philippines and Kuwait would no longer be subjected to double taxation, as was the case before," he said.

After the meeting with his counterpart, Hernandez's mission started with Al-Mulla Group where he met with Deputy Chairman Abdullah Najib Al-Mulla. Hernandez revealed to discuss several issues related to Philippines business policies and the Philippine market environment in general.

I don't want to preempt their company's decision, but from my side, discussion was in advance level already. Meaning they are closer to signing investments agreements, (not yet), but we are closer to that. Example, the Al-Mulla Group who are keen on engineering and trade services, I gave them a thorough briefing on the services sectors in the Philippines, especially on the IT-enabled services and also logistics which cover the services sector.

I told Najib the advantages and several benefits which we can provide generously, of course our incomparable fiscal and non-fiscal incentives which we also want to provide on the basis of our priority plans," he reiterated. He also met with the board members of Kuwait Investment Authority, Gulf Tanker Company and Unicorn Investments where he reported a positive outcome and also a closer to signing an investment agreement with the companies.

In general I am very happy because, the discussion was already in the advanced stage and that they are keen on doing business with us. They have been doing some research studies already and it's a matter of confirmation and everything turns to be positive," he said.

Hernandez noted that his visit to Kuwait was part of their aggressive investment promotion campaign to promote investment opportunities in the Philippines. "In Kuwait, we know that they are primarily the source of Foreign Direct Investment and so we have several discussions with private and government entities here to promote Philippines as profitable haven for investment," Hernandez concluded. - Kuwait TImes