Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At a Lunch Hosted by Dr. Heinrich von Pierer, Chairman, Asia-Pacific Committee,
German Business and Chairman/CEO, Siemens. AG
On President Ramos’s Official Visit to Germany

[Delivered in Frankfurt, Germany, September 16, 1994]

The Philippines as your
East Asian base

WE MADE GERMANY our final stop on this working visit to Europe because we wanted to save the best for the last.

Germany is our third-largest trading partner—and our strongest economic link in the European Union.

But beyond trade, there is a great reservoir of admiration for Germany in my country—for your technology, your economic strength and the way you have softened individual enterprise with communitarian social values.

Like you, we in the Philippines believe the public interest is more—much more—than the sum of private interests.

Philippine economic recovery

At the moment, all we can do is dream of nurturing in our country the kind of communitarian capitalism that Germany practices—where corporations have a perspective longer than the next quarter’s dividends; a greater feeling of responsibility to their employees and customers; and a greater care for those social groups whom competition leaves behind.

We have restored the economy to self-sustaining growth. And we are creating a business environment equally open to national and foreign investment.

Now we recognize we must join the global economy—and not shy away from it.

German investments in the Philippines

German investments in the Philippines so far are very small—no more than 3.15 percent of all foreign investments last year. But the big German companies that set up Philippine manufacturing bases many years ago are still there; some in fact have expanded capacity.

Our two-way trade last year was worth US$1.3 billion. It was unfavorable to us by US$113 million.

One of our objects here is to balance this trade, and then to enlarge and diversify it. And one of the ways we could do that is to adopt the countertrade arrangements our people have proposed to Siemens as well as technology transfer and equity investments in our telecommunications manufacturing facilities in exchange for its various programs with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company.

An invitation to visit the Philippines

I am certain of the desirability of the Philippines as an investment site that all I really ask is for potential investors to come and see for themselves.

What you will find is a friendly, outgoing people whose culture you can be comfortable with. We are East Asia’s only Christian country.

Even more important, we share your political ideals. Our intellectuals of the nineteenth century were products of the European Enlightenment Movement. In fact, our greatest hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, published his inspiring novel, Noli Me Tangere, in Berlin in 1887—which book sparked the Philippine Revolution of 1896 to 1898.

Your base for Southeast Asia-Pacific

Not just the Philippines but the whole of East Asia-Pacific offers tremendous commercial possibilities for German business.

With integration, our six countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines are going to become one market of 340 million consumers whose incomes are rising at the world’s fastest rates.

On my initiative, ASEAN has just organized a growth area made up of Borneo, the Indonesian Spice Islands and our own southern islands of Mindanao and Sulu.

Not just Southeast Asia but the whole of East Asia is coalescing into one great economic unit.

The Philippines makes an excellent gateway to this great market—particularly since we also have a home-consumer base of 65 million that understands and accepts European products and marketing styles.

Commendation for the Asia-Pacific Committee

In closing, let me congratulate you on your initiative in founding the Asia-Pacific Committee—not only to strengthen the representation of German business in our part of the world but also to work with our governments in developing small and medium enterprises and in technical education and vocational training for our young people.

You will be happy to know we have adopted your concept of dual-tech training which was introduced to us by the Hanns Seidel Foundation—for our own nationwide technical education and skills development programs.

The time has come for the Asia-Pacific Committee of German business to set up a Philippine subcommittee, so that its members can come and see for themselves how well we in the Philippines can perform for the mutual benefit of our two countries.

Let me take this occasion to invite you to put together a delegation to visit the Philippines as our guests—to have a firsthand view of how we are developing as a working democracy in the Asia-Pacific.