Phl sends trade mission to Indonesia

The Philippines is embarking on a trade and business mission to Indonesia this week to forge stronger ties and ensure sustained operations of the Davao-General Santos-Bitung Roll-On, Roll-Off (RoRo) operations.

“Sustaining the RoRo operations, launched in April this year by President Rodrigo Duterte and Indonesian President Joko Widodo, is high on the agenda of the Department of Trade and Industry,” Trade Undersecretary Nora Terrado said.

“We want to see the sustained operations of the shipping service so our local entrepreneurs, particularly our small and medium enterprises in Mindanao, could begin to reap the gains from enhanced connectivity between Mindanao and Sulawesi, and the greater BIMPEAGA region,” she added.

The Philippine business delegation composed of government representatives and local entrepreneurs in Davao will focus on building networks and partnerships with Indonesian companies in the areas of trading, joint venture agreements, joint production schemes, and other forms of strategic partnerships.

The DTI said among the companies in the delegation are Eagle Multi Purpose Cooperative, Mindanao Agriplus Corp., Certuso Structural Speacialists Corp., Halal Business Council, Aleson Shipping Lines Inc. and Fastcargo Logistics Corp.

Business-to-business meetings and networking sessions, site visits in Bitung Port, as well as market and company visits are included in the mission’s itinerary.

DTI regional director Belenda Ambi said targeted and high-quality meetings during the business-to-business and networking sessions are expected, while market visits would seek to help the business delegation understand the Indonesian market in terms of product offerings, pricing, packaging and competition.

“We enjoin the full cooperation of all stakeholders of both countries to maximize the opportunities being offered by the sustained operations of the route. This is a great opportunity that has been made available to local entrepreneurs to ensure that they could participate more in international business,” Ambi said.