PRESIDENT Duterte is set to visit Japan in the last week of May, his third trip to the Philippines’s top source of official development assistance.
Malacañang confirmed in a press briefing on Tuesday that the President’s visit is upon the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“He will surely go there [Japan]. I already texted Chief Protocol Robert Borje, he hasn’t replied yet, though, [on] what is the exact date,” said Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo in a briefing.
“What I know is the invitation was personally carried here by the representatives of the Prime Minister,” he told reporters in a separate interview.
While Panelo said he still doesn’t know the agenda of the President’s visit, he said he expects this visit to boost the country’s trade relations with Japan.
He is also hoping new agreements will also be signed between two countries.
A report by Japanese media outfit Nikkei said Duterte will speak at the annual Future of Asia conference that Nikkei will host in Tokyo for two days through May 31.
Japan and the Philippines are also reportedly trying to schedule a summit with Abe. Japan has been one of the crucial partners of the Philippines in terms of economic development.
The Japanese government has been the top source of ODA loans to the country aside from being the country’s second-biggest trading partner and fourth-largest tourism market.
During a Philippine Economic Briefing in Osaka in February, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III underscored Japan’s key role in jump-starting the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program.
The Metro Manila Subway, the Philippines’s first ever underground rail system, is being funded in large part by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).
Mission: PHL recognizes Jica
Jica was recently feted by several government agencies that gave out category awards during the culminating event of Mission: PHL, the BusinessMirror Envoys&Expats Award. Jica got four such awards for its support for the Philippines’s transportation infrastructure (from DOTr); trade and investments (from DTI); science, technology and innovation (from DOST); and infrastructure (from DPWH).
The agency was also recognized as the Development Aid Partner of the Year.
Japan announced on February 21 that it is extending a ¥3.2-billion grant assistance for peace and development projects in Mindanao on top of its $202-million loan for the road network development project in conflict-affected areas in the country’s second-largest island group.