The Philippines has reaffirmed its commitment to expand two-way trade and investment ties with Switzerland and deepen cooperation in cleantech and renewable energy, infrastructure, life sciences, and digital healthcare sectors.
Three breakout sessions were held during a recent virtual business forum between the two countries, that focused on the Philippines’ priority investment sectors:
- Clean technology and renewable energy (RE) sectors, which are especially relevant as the Philippines seeks to increase the share of renewables to more than half of its power generation mix by 2040. The investment opportunities in RE lie in upstream development, generation, retail, transmission, and distribution, according to the Department of Energy.
- Swiss organizations were also encouraged to look into supporting the development of the Philippine infrastructure sector.
- Health is another key sector, especially as the pandemic highlighted the urgent need to digitize and increase the resilience of the healthcare system
Notably, over the last five years, approved investments from Switzerland reached PHP1 billion (USD20 million) as Swiss entities like Nestle, Franke Food Service, and CHAMP Cargosystems, among many others, continue to thrive in the Philippines. In terms of trade, bilateral trade between the Philippines and Switzerland rose to USD764 million in 2020, and Philippine exports to the European country rose 8% over the same period despite the pandemic. It is also worth noting that trade between the two countries is expected to further grow as the PH-European Free Trade Association (PH-EFTA), signed in 2018, continues to be enforced.
(Sources: Philippine Department of Trade and Industry)
