President Benigno Aquino. FILE PHOTO
ZURICH—President Aquino is scheduled to arrive here early Thursday morning on a three-day visit seen to herald the Philippine growth story to global business leaders, fellow heads of state, multilateral institutions, civil society and the Filipino-Swiss community.
Mr. Aquino will arrive in Zurich at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday and travel for about two hours to Davos, one of Switzerland’s biggest ski resorts, to attend the World Economic Forum annual meetings for the very first time as head of state.
The President will be welcomed here by Philippine Ambassador to Switzerland Leslie Baja, Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Evan Garcia, and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization Esteban Conejos Jr.
“I think the biggest impact would be the message that (he) will be able to give to the audience in Davos. The Philippines ended 2012 with very good credentials as far as the economic performance of the country is concerned, as far as our campaign on good governance is concerned,” Baja said.
“There are over 1,600 CEOs (chief executive officers) who will be attending Davos in the World Economic Forum and I think the message will certainly be that the Philippines is back in business, that the Philippines has very strong economic fundamentals that basically is…we’re ready to do business with any country in the world,” Baja added.
In Davos, Mr. Aquino will meet with top executives from German car giant Volkswagen and International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde on Thursday afternoon.
There’s also a tentatively scheduled meeting Thursday afternoon with Duncan Niederauer, chief executive officer of NYSE Euronext, a leading global operator of financial markets and a provider of innovative trading technologies. In 2010, NYSE Technologies, the commercial technology division of NYSE Euronext, helped the Philippine Stock Exchange migrate to a new trading infrastructure seen enhancing its product range, trading performance and volume capacity of the local bourse.
On Thursday evening, Mr. Aquino is set to grace WEF’s private reception “Partnering Against Corruption Initiative.”
Since assuming office in 2010, Mr. Aquino’s strong signal to the global community on governance reforms has boosted investor confidence in the Philippines, sending the local stock market to new record highs.