(NI BETH JULIAN)

INAASAHANG sa pagtungo sa Japan ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ay malalagdaan ang  dalawang Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) at walong letters of intent.

Ito ang kabilang sa mga aktibidades ng Pangulo na inihayag ni Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez sa pagdalo sa nito sa 25TH NIKKEI Conference on the Future of Asia sa Tokyo, Japan ngayong Mayo.

“Sa ngayon, ongoing ang finalization of arrangements but we will have a business forum that will allow the President to meet the Japanese companies, representatives, CEOs, as well as with of course the Philippine business delegation that would be joining the President,” pahayag ni Lopez.

Idinagdag pa ni Lopez, ang mga kumpanya na nasa Pilipinas na nagbabalak na magpalakas at magpalaki ng kanilang operasyon ay ang mga Japanese companies na hindi mabalewala ng gobyerno.

“They still want to express their support and confidence for the current administration and they want to indicate their intent to invest more. So that’s so far what we’re getting. Different letters of intent, and then may, as mentioned, two MOUs na B2B rin,” ani pa ni Lopez.

Tinukoy ni Lopez na ang mga aspeto o lugar na posibleng malagdaan ay may kinalaman sa ‘electronics, manufacturing, data analytics, some services’.

“AIl field, basically, advanced, I remember manufacturing, I think energy, meron ding tourism related, like theme parks, hotels,” paglalahad pa nito.

“Maaari pa itong madagdagan. Earlier we got some indication na some agencies might have in their respective sectors, I think transportation and energy, mga projects. But sila ang naghahandle naman nun, so we will add them to this na binubuo natin ngayon. But this, we will simply report this to the President. Unfortunately baka hindi nya, wala nang time na ma-witness ni President yung mga signing, anyway B2B naman ito and that we’ll report that the consolidation of all this MOA, MOU, and letters of intent,” dagdag pa ni Lopez.

Sa ngayon ayon kay Lopez ay wala pa silang ideya o hindi pa matukoy kung magkano ang halagang gugugulin dito.

“Moving pa yung amount so wala pa. Sa Jobs Wala pa, because they’re just coming in eh. But in terms of the number, yung sinabi ko na number of deals. So we’re still completing the information but definitely meron yan. I think it will be substantial,” dagdag pa ni Lopez.

Bunsod nito, kumpiyansa si Lopez na lalong lalakas ang trade relations sa pagitan ng Japan at Pilipinas.

“It’s a two way, but I think ang mas pino-promote natin and since Japan naman is the big brother, the advanced economy, we’re asking them to open up all their markets that we mentioned earlier, yung specific case, yung B2B natin which is yung banana export. Malakas na yung export natin dun, we’re one of the biggest supplier of banana but we noticed that our tariff rates may room pa to go down. So we are working towards the reduction in the tariff rate to gain more access in the Japanese market. Because we’ve seen that their tariff rates for other countries are lower, so sabi namin, babaan na rin natin, you know, we have an FTA, we have trading partners, we’re working on that one,” paliwanag pa Lopez.