Sir Simon Fraser, permanent undersecretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and head of the UK government’s Diplomatic Service, will visit Manila on Wednesday and Thursday as part of Britain’s strategic engagement with the government of the Philippines.
Fraser will meet Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario, Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras and other senior officials in Manila to discuss a range of bilateral and global issues. He will also meet business leaders as part of ongoing efforts to maintain the growth of trade and investment between the two countries that has been achieved in recent years.
The British Embassy Manila now employs up to 200 staff at peak times, including over 160 Filipinos.
This will be Fraser’s second trip to the country as permanent undersecretary, the first being in 2011. The UK has been stepping up its engagement with the Philippines as one of its key partners, aiming to double bilateral trade by 2015 and mounting its second GREAT campaign to boost business and cultural collaborations with the Philippines.
Fraser will also visit the global transaction processing center and regional corporate services hub. Manila was chosen as the “hub” for the largest center for the Foreign Commonwealth Office’s shared services due to the Philippines’s global excellence and competitiveness in the business-process outsourcing sector. The British Embassy Manila now employs up to 200 staff at peak times, including over 160 Filipinos.
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