Stronger Aussie-PH trade ties urged

Australia is eyeing to further expand bilateral trade and investments with the Philippines as well as strengthen cooperation with the local agriculture and education sectors, according to New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell.

On the sidelines of a breakfast meeting Thursday, O’Farrell urged Philippine companies to look at potential investment opportunities in New South Wales’ agriculture, infrastructure, and property sectors, financial services, professional services as well as architectural services.

He assured prospective Filipino investors that New South Wales offers “safe, stable and long term rates of return, as well as a good tax regime that can provide rebates in payroll taxes depending on the number of jobs created by a company.”

“Ultimately, investors want to make profit. There are opportunities to make profits in New South Wales, which has a strong economy, diverse community, strong financial services sector,” O’Farrell added.

New South Wales is a state in the east of Australia, which has a population of 7.5 million. The whole Australia has a population of about 23 million.

O’Farrell is part of the Australian delegation visiting the country until today.

“Missions like these, are about trying to draw attention to the opportunities available in Australia. It’s about trying to build relationships and at times, about creating contacts that could lead to investments and jobs for both our citizens,” O’Farrell said.

To increase bilateral trade, O’Farrell noted that they have established a multicultural business advisory panel that will help interested Filipino companies to set up shop in Australia.

“We are a multicultural community. A number of the Filipinos that have come to Australia already do business back in their home country, and we’re working with them through the multicultural business advisory panel by assisting them to grow their businesses and expand,” O’Farrell said.

Australian firms, in turn, are also eyeing prospective ventures in the Philippines, including providing assistance to effectively roll out the government’s public private partnership program, among other sectors.

Meanwhile, O’Farrell said Australia is keen on further strengthening cooperation with the Philippines in the agriculture and education sectors.

“On agriculture, we’re currently working with Philippine companies to grow cattle, but I think that there’s more we could do. We’re pretty good farmers across many different commodities and Filipinos, equally, are very good. What’s different is the scale. So if it’s about upscaling farmers and assisting through technology, depending on the framework allowed by the Philippine national government, there are opportunities for the Australian government to help,” he explained.

“Education continues to be a strong area. We’re encouraging our universities to have exchanges with universities here so our students can also come in and study here. Such relationships can help secure good diplomatic, business and other connections [between the Philippines and Australia,” O’Farrell said.

Australia ranked 17th as a market for Philippine exports in 2012, contributing 0.74 percent share to total Philippine exports of $52.1 billion. As a source of imports, Australia was in 14th place with 2.17 percent share of the $62.13 billion in Philippine imports in 2012.