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President Gloria Arroyo hopes South Korean President
Lee Myung Bak could visit the Philippines in March next year for the
celebration of the 60th anniversary of Philippine-South Korea
diplomatic relations.
At the same time, the President
expressed her desire to visit Seoul next year.
”I hope during the anniversary
of our diplomatic relations, he [Myung Bak] would be able to visit
us,” the President said to Yu Myung Hwan, South Korea’s Minister
of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who paid a courtesy call on the
President Friday afternoon in Malacañang.
The President and the South
Korean minister, who was the former Republic of Korea Ambassador to
the Philippines from March 2004 to August 2005, discussed a
wide-range of issues that included increased trade and investments.
During Hwan’s tour of duty in
the Philippines, South Korea was ranked the second largest source of
foreign direct investments in 2004, with $1.4 billion in fresh
investments brought into the country, Foreign Affairs Secretary
Roberto Romulo said.
He added that the memorandum of
understanding between the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and
Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction was signed on May 14, 2005,
which translated to a $1-billion investment in the shipbuilding
industry. That investment made the Philippines the fourth largest
shipbuilder in the world.
Romulo also said South Korea
supported the President’s 10-point pro-poor legacy agenda,
particularly in the electrification, through Korean firm KEPCO, of
barangays nationwide.
South Korea also ranked as the
country’s largest source of tourists, with 378,602 tourists from
that country arriving in 2004, which is a 25-percent increase from
303,867 in 2003.
South Korea and the Philippines
also signed a memorandum of understanding in April 2004 to remove
barriers in sending workers to South Korea. The agreement was
carried out in August 2004.
--Angelo S. Samonte
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