The country's largest business organization, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is urging members of its Japanese counterpart, the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry to pour in more investments into the country's various industries, particularly in the agriculture sector.

During his talk at the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the PCCI and JCCI at the Peninsula Makati on Tuesday, Salvador Salacup, co-chair of the PCCI Agriculture Committee, stressed that the country's agricultural sector, while lagging behind other countries in the Southeast Asian region, remains an imperative industry with its current 9.5 percent or P417 trillion share in the country's gross domestic product.

He said Japan's export trade with the Philippines reached Y2.220 billion in 2021, while Japanese imports stood Y1.192 billion.

Meanwhile, total direct investments reached Y24.5 billion, while the most dominant agricultural products sold to Japan by the Philippines are fruits, such as bananas, pineapples, papayas, mangoes, and even vegetable okra.

"We import 99.8 percent of our milk products that's why there is a big opportunity for Japanese dairy producers to place businesses here in the country. But we are not only covering vegetables, fruits, and dairy, as we want to cover other commodities, such as pork, chicken, eggs and fish (tuna)," he told Japanese investors.

Salacup also said that despite the many challenges being faced by the sector, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been doing his best to improve the current agricultural situation by launching the agriculture roadmap dubbed OneDA Reform Agenda, which includes strategies such as farm mechanization and infrastructure investments; climate change adaptation and mitigation measures; global trade, export development and promotion; education and training: agribusiness management; youth and women engagement; and ease of doing business and transparent procurement.

MoU

The highlight of the forum yesterday was the signing of a memorandum of understanding between PCCI president George Barcelon and JCCI president Ken Kobayashi which indicates a mutual desire to strengthen business and economic cooperation between the two trade groups.

Kobayashi maintained in his keynote speech that the Philippine business atmosphere "remains attractive to Japanese businessmen."

The sealed agreement includes regular exchange and information dissemination with the view of further opening up further possibilities for enhancing economic cooperation, increasing trade, and expanding investments between the Philippines and Japan, particularly in the areas of information and communications technology and innovation, manufacturing, agriculture, franchising, tourism, services, and small and medium enterprise development, among others.

Further, the MoU states that the two parties shall endeavor to organize outbound or host inbound trade and investment missions between the two countries and will assist in the identification and establishment of businesses in their respective countries.

"This is very significant for the JCCI as it is the first time that the Chamber has a MoU with the PCCI. This is an opening for us to investigate some of the many sectors that will benefit us, especially in the agricultural sector, for example, as we will have the potential to increase our exports of fruits," PCCI president Barcelon said.

On the other hand, he said Japan, which is facing challenges because of its aging population, can benefit from the country's young workforce which will also increase the productivity of the Philippines in terms of exports.

Staunch trading partner

"Japan will remain our staunch trading partner, it is our second trading partner next to the United States. It is very well entrenched, particularly in the sector of infrastructure, and renewable energy, among others," according to Barcelon.

Meanwhile, Board of Investments managing head Ceferino Rodolfo's presentation indicated that the Philippines with a total population of 113 million as of 2022, and reaching 125 million by 2030. The labor force of currently 51.2 million has a 3.8 percent productivity rate, with 800,000 graduates per year that are highly trainable with a short learning curve of six months; and adaptable in various fields of work.

Last May 2023, the Japan International Cooperation Agency signed a loan agreement with the Philippine government to provide a Japanese official development assistance loan of up to Y17,399.9 million for the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 Rehabilitation Project (II), thus promoting increased use of the line and contributing to the alleviation of serious traffic congestion, as well as to the mitigation of air pollution and climate change in Metro Manila.

Also in February 2022, the two governments signed the second tranche of an ODA loan agreement amounting to Y253.307 billion to fund the Metro Manila Subway Project (Phase 1), dubbed as the "Project of the Century" through the "Build, Build, Build" program of the Rodrigo Duterte administration.