Phl to host high-level dialogue on Rp-spain cooperation

The Philippines will host a high-level dialogue with Spain late this month, focusing on key efforts to boost partnerships between the country and Spain in the areas of business, education, politics and culture.

The 6th Tribuna España-Filipinas will be held at the Asian Institute of Management Conference Center on Jan. 29-30, the forum’s spokesman Chaco Molina confirmed.

The 20-member Spanish delegation will include Deputy House Speaker Dolors Montserrat; former House Speaker and Defense Secretary Jose Bono; Partido Popular MP & Instituto Cervantes Secretary General, Rafael Rodriguez-Ponga; as well as infrastructure moguls Pedro Gomez and Alberto Fernandez.

Molina said senior Cabinet officials will be meeting the delegates. Among them are Budget Secretary Butch Abad, Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras, Education Secretary Armin Luistro, Secretary Joel Rocamora of the NAPC, CHEd Chairperson Patricia Licuanan, and Presidential Political Adviser Ronald Llamas.

The forum, which seeks to enhance Philippine-Spanish relations, is the fruit of a partnership between the Barcelona-based Casa Asia and our very own Fundacion Santiago.

This year’s forum, he said, will focus on four major points — heritage tourism and creative industries, private public partnerships, politics and education.

The dialogue will tackle Bottom Up Bottom-up Budgetting; Transparency & Accountability, as well as key areas of business like the PPP and Waterways for Sustainable Development, and Investing in Runways. There will also be sessions to cover Wall-less Education; Exchanges, Internationalization and Equivalency.

In recent years, the partnership between the two countries has resulted in over $300 million worth of trade in imports and exports, foreign direct investments of roughly $57 million in 2010, ODA of P91 million in 2011, $1.3 million in grants, $2.48 million in loans, as well an increasing number of tourist arrivals from Spain which reached 15,000 in 2012 alone.

There are also roughly 40,000 Filipinos living or working in Spain.

This is the third time that the Philippines will host the event. It was previously held in Manila and Cebu.