Philippines, UAE eye more areas for economic cooperation
Credit to Author: Helen Flores| Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos is eyeing to expand cooperation with the United Arab Emirates in “so many areas” to strengthen economic relations between the two countries.
The President met with UAE Minister of Investment Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi at Malacañang on Friday to discuss enhancing trade and investment opportunities for both sides.
“I’m happy to see you and discover so many areas that would be possible for us to explore further,” Marcos told the UAE official.
In response, Alsuwaidi said: “After having discussions today, we really don’t understand why we haven’t historically invested more and, given the amount of opportunities we see, whether it’s in the infrastructure, whether it’s in industrial mining or telecommunication, data centers, renewables – the size of opportunities, health care, are tremendous.”
In a post on his social media pages late Friday, Marcos said the UAE official’s visit would open more
investment opportunities in the country, including in infrastructure, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, health care and education.
“This collaboration is the result of the UAE’s recognition of the potential of the Philippines as a center of business and trade in the region,” Marcos said.
Alsuwaidi also informed the President that the UAE recognized Filipino nurses for providing excellent patient care in his country.
He also described the relationship between the Philippines and the UAE as “very deep.”
In 2023, the UAE was the Philippines’ 18th largest trading partner out of 230.
Approved investments from the UAE totaled P376.71 million in 2023 and P82.59 million from January to September 2024.
Priority sectors for investment promotion to the UAE include agribusiness/agriculture, energy efficiency technologies and renewable energy, infrastructure or public-private partnership projects, innovation (artificial intelligence), information technology and business process management.
On Nov. 30, 2023, the Department of Trade and Industry and the UAE Ministry of Investment signed a memorandum of understanding to develop high-capacity data center projects in the Philippines.
UAE companies such as Edgnex Data Centres have signified plans to invest in data centers in the country.
On Jan. 15, the Department of Energy, the Board of Investments and Masdar signed an Implementation Agreement to develop solar, wind and battery energy storage systems in the Philippines. The project aims to achieve a total capacity of up to one gigawatt by 2030, with a total investment of $15 billion.
In November last year, Marcos met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Dubai.
During their meeting, the two leaders acknowledged expanding their relations into new cooperation areas beyond traditional sectors.
Marcos also expressed his gratitude for the care and respect shown to the Filipino community there.