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About EU Business Avenues in South East Asia

The sixth business mission under the EU Business Avenues in South East Asia programme, Green Energy Technologies, will take selected European companies to Singapore and Philippines from 23 to 27 October 2017.

The first part of the business mission week will see the European companies travelling to Singapore for two days of trade exhibition co-locating with Asia Clean Energy Summit (ACES) 2017, as part of the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW). The companies will then travel to Philippines for pre-arranged business meetings with local companies for another two days.

Vice President Robredo calls on PH business sector to be a key partner for the government’s inclusive growth and poverty alleviation agenda

9 October 2017 – At a joint meeting with several business groups, Vice President Leni Robredo shared how the business sector can be a key partner for inclusive growth. The current administration aims to reduce the poverty rate to 14% and boost Philippine economic growth rate to 8% by 2022. To get there, Vice President Robredo called on the business sector to be a partner of the government in achieving its ten-point agenda: “The government’s 10-point agenda for economic growth will help businesses thrive. It is a sound strategy for sustaining our gains and strengthening economic growth. But although we already have a great vision, the question is how to line up the nuts and bolts.”

PH ONE SPOT HIGHER IN GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS RANKINGS AT 56th, BUT SLIDES DOWN TWO SPOTS IN ASEAN RANKINGS IN THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (WEF) GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS REPORT (2017-2018)

27 September 2017 – The Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018, published today, sees the Philippines going up in global competitiveness rankings by 1 notch, from 57th in 2016 to 56th in 2017. However, the country has slid down the ASEAN rankings, now standing at the 7h out of 9 in the region, from 5th in 2016 (as
Myanmar has not been included in the Report since 2016). With this two-point drop in regional standing, the Philippines is now below Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam, which both made large strides in their respective competitiveness rankings

STATEMENT ON THE RECENT FILINGS OF IMPEACHMENT COMPLAINTS

14 September 2017 – The Makati Business Club remains steadfast in its position that an impeachment process is a vital part of the country’s democratic system of checks and balances. However, we are deeply concerned over the unprecedented number of impeachment complaints lodged against high-ranking officials from the President, the Supreme Court Chief Justice, the Ombudsman and the COMELEC.