The Philippines (PH) and the Czech Republic (CZ) signed a joint agreement to boost mutual economic cooperation and exchanged views on the concrete ways to bring the relations towards a more strategic direction. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and CZ Ambassador to PH Jaroslav Olsa, Jr. signed, on 31 July, the PH-CZ Agreement on Economic Cooperation, which will provide an avenue for both sides to strategically discuss initiatives in the areas of technology, transportation, tourism, food and beverage, agriculture and agri-processing, energy, and defense and security solutions. Opportunities for investment promotion are in the areas of information technology-business processing management (IT-BPM), knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), processed and specialty food, energy, design-driven products and aerospace/aeronautics. While the PH is pursuing a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union, PH’s engagement with CZ aligns with the government’s strategy of rebalancing trade relations with non-traditional partners with an independent foreign policy. Said agreement will also pave the way to the creation of a PH-CZ Joint Economic Cooperation (JEC). In 2016, CZ was PH’s 31st trading partner (out of 226); 28th export market (out of 213); and 33rd import supplier (out of 207), with total bilateral trade amounting to USD 283 million.
