The Global Gateway is a partnership of equals. To formalize this partnership, a Global Gateway Forum is organized today in the EU capital Brussels, Belgium. It brings together our key global partners – the Philippines will be represented by the Secretary of Finance, Benjamin E. Diokno – to examine progress and to consider further opportunities and challenges in the strategy’s implementation.
In fact, over the last months, we have experienced an extraordinary engagement by our Philippine counterparts – led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – to determine the key components and deliverables of this Program. This engagement showed the full ownership of the Government, but also of LGUs and the private sector, to move towards a greener, more circular economy in the Philippines.
It is clear that opportunities are abundant in the Philippines. The Department of Trade and Industry reported last week that the Philippines has approved between January and September this year foreign direct investments in the amount of P427 billion – with the EU, in particular Germany, by far in the lead, and the bulk of this earmarked for renewable energy.
Today, 24 October, is United Nations Day: 78 years ago, the United Nations Charter entered into force, establishing the world organization that has ever since represented hope and humanity’s best joint efforts...