Indian President Ram Nath Kovind visits Manila

The klieg lights are on, the music is blaring from the speakers. Ladies are dancing in their flowy sarees – fuschia, yellow, blue and what-have-you. Little girls with bright red lipsticks are preparing for their own dance while a Bollywood boy band takes centerstage.

The curtain is indeed raised and it’s the start of Diwali celebrations in the Philippines. The festivities kicked off last Saturday in Pasay in a grand night of singing and dancing organized by the Indian Cultural Association of the Philippines.

Diwali is officially celebrated on Oct. 27.

What is diwali?

It literally means a row of lights, a time filled with light and love and a time when Indians all over the world rejoice.

Double celebration in the Philippines

In the Philippines, Indians have a lot more to celebrate especially today as Indian President Ram Nath Kovind arrives for a state visit.

The Indian community here is excited. The Philippine government likewise looks forward to the visit. “The state visit marks an important milestone in the Philippine-India bilateral relations as both countries commemorate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year,” says the Department of Foreign Affairs.

President Duterte will welcome President Kovind in a state dinner tomorrow, Oct. 18. There will also be delegation talks and a meeting with the Indian community. President Kovind is also expected to grace the fourth Asian-India Business Summit on Saturday.

Golden visa

Indian businessmen in the Philippines are optimistic the visit would translate to better ties between the two countries.

There are perennial issues which they hope would be addressed someday in the future.

For instance, many of them are appealing to the government to ease visa procedures for Indians entering the Philippines.

“Indians are travelling all over the world like never before but visa to enter the Philippines is difficult to get,” says Indian businessman Vishnu Hathiramani, publisher of Filipino-Indian magazine Namaste in an interview on the sidelines of the Diwali celebration.

He proposed that Indian tourists must be allowed to enter the Philippines but must be stamped a “golden visa” on their passport which cannot be converted by those who want to set up a business, study or work in Manila.

This, Vishnu, said can greatly boost tourism in the Philippines.

5/6

I couldn’t help but raise the issue of unscrupulous Indian lenders, more commonly known as the 5/6 lenders or those that charge an interest of 20 percent per month, which means that when a borrower borrows five pesos, he has to pay six pesos.

However, Vishnu said the 5/6 business in the Philippines has already slowed down because of the government’s crackdown against them particularly the Securities and Exchange Commission’s tight monitoring of the illegal lending sector.

Indeed, there are many developments in the Indian community in the Philippines and Indian businesses are looking forward to many opportunities in the country. Clearly, there’s more to Indians here than just being known as 5/6 lenders.

Wongchuking ventures into the oil depot business

La Campana Fabrica de Tabacos Inc., founded by the late Wong Chu King as a small cigarette factory in Manila, is said to be among the oldest cigarette companies in the country.

It started in post-war Philippines in 1945. This year, the Wongchuking family celebrates La Campana’s 74th anniversary by marking a new leaf. It’s no secret that Japanese cigarette giant JTI bought La Campana’s successor Mighty Corp. two years ago.

I had the chance to attend the anniversary celebration recently held in the family’s sprawling compound and here, I learned that La Campana has morphed into a new and fully diversified conglomerate, WcKHoldings with different businesses including an oil depot terminal in Batangas.

“We have now in our holding company the property development including the construction of the oil depot terminal and leasing company in Wck Properties. We have established Skz farms in Cavite property for our agribusiness venture in poultry operations. We have also set up our printing operations in Waks Ichiban to cater to offset printing requirements of various industries. Mighty Sports Apparels continues to cater to schools and sports institutions in the country. We intend to grow this brand as the top local choice in apparels,” says Caesar Wongchuking in his message during the anniversary celebration.

These new developments are on top of the previously announced warehouse and cold storage business, which is also fast growing with many multinationals and local players as locators.

“We acquired Everest Cold Storage based in Iloilo. This is a strategic acquisition because this is located in a prime location in the booming province. It also serves as a preparation for the construction of our planned state of the art Bloomberg Cold storage in our TIP facilities in Malolos,” Caesar also said.

Indeed, from one cigarette company, Wong Chu King’s legacy lives on – burning like a cigarette, this time in a variety of many other businesses.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is eyesgonzales@gmail. com. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com