Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, hosted a high-level delegation from the Philippines today at the Ministry of Economy headquarters in Dubai.
In addition to several officials, the delegation included Benjamin Diokno, Secretary of Finance; Amenah Pangandaman, Secretary of Budget and Management; Arsenio Balisacan, Secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority; Francisco G. Dakila, Jr., Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines; Rosalia V. de Leon, National Treasurer; and Alfonso Ferdinand A. Ver, Ambassador of the Philippines to the UAE.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to improve trade and investment relations, highlighting the most recent updates to the two countries' Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which began after the two sides announced the start of talks in February 2022, with the goal of increasing investment flows, facilitating intra-trade movement, and creating new opportunities for the two countries' business communities.
They also discussed issues linked to strengthening bilateral relations and strategies to build collaborative economic initiatives in mutually beneficial sectors such as clean energy, artificial intelligence, transportation and logistics, and financial and banking services.
The two sides emphasized the need of collaboration in the private sector by utilizing chambers of commerce and industry in both countries, as well as joint and local business councils.
Non-oil intra-trade between the UAE and the Philippines increased by 19.4 percent in the first half of 2023, totaling USD 506.1 million, compared to the same period in 2022, while intra-non-oil trade totaled over USD 1.850 billion in 2022, up from USD 830.3 million and USD 715.6 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively.