PGMA's
Remarks during the Launching Ceremony of the Northrail-Southrail
Linkage Project |
| Thank you very much. His Excellency President Roh Moo-Hyun and Madame Roh; Vice President de Castro; Speaker de Venecia and our other congressmen who are here today; Secretary Romulo and the other members of the Cabinet and agencies who are here today; Mayor Atienza; our friends from the Korean delegation; ladies and gentlemen: Your excellency in behalf of the Filipino people, let me once again extend my warmest welcome to you and your delegation. In the Korean War, Filipinos and Koreans shed blood and sacrificed lives for our common dream of freedom. The Republic of Korea won the war with the help of friends like the Philippines and I am glad that up to today we have become even better friends. Just as the Philippines was there for Korea in the battle against communism in the 1950s, I am grateful that now the Republic of Korea is with us here in our war against poverty today. This ceremony on the occasion of President Roh's state visit to the Philippines is an expression of our special gratefulness that the Republic of Korea will finance the modernization of the train system across Metro Manila. President Roh and the Korean government have been very generous to extend a soft loan of 50.42 million dollars for the 34-kilometer Caloocan to Alabang railroad which we call the Northrail-Southrail linkage project. This is a major contribution to one of the ten points of our pro-poor agenda which is the decongestion of Metro Manila. With this groundbreaking our next ambition is to extend the project to Calamba, Laguna and onwards to Bicol. This project is part of the many projects of assistance and investment both from the Korean government and the Korean business community. For instance, there is an investment by Hanjin, a Korean company in the shipyard in Subic, Zambales that will ramp up to one billion U.S. dollars. On the occasion of this visit we will also have the opportunity to celebrate the KEPCO (Korean Electric Power Company) expansion in Batangas of 600 million U.S. dollars and 200 million dollars in Naga in Cebu. And on occasion of KEPCO's expansion of an additional 600 million dollars in its Batangas plant, we will also be working on a 200 million-dollar connection from the power plant of KEPCO in Batangas under the water to Mindoro island. Also, we are very grateful for the assistance of the Republic of Korea in the preparation and hopefully the start of the construction of the airport in Misamis oriental in Mindanao. All these projects that I am describing which will consist of assistance from the government of the Republic of Korea as well as private sector investments of the business community of Korea, all in all amount to more than two billion U.S. dollars. And this morning, President Roh and I witnessed the signing by our two foreign ministers of an arrangement for a loan of 22.3 million dollars also from the economic development cooperation fund of the Republic of Korea for a loan agreement for the widening of the San Fernando-Gapan road and emergency dredging projects for my province of Pampanga. This morning in our bilateral meeting, President Roh and I also discussed South Korean commitments to invest more in Philippine industries like the energy sector as well as the setting up a 'one-stop shop' for investors in the board of investments to make it easier for more Korean investors to invest in the Philippines. Mr. President, I hope you are happy that our Filipino students are cheering you here this afternoon. And I take this opportunity to say that we welcome the many Korean students who are also studying here in the Philippines. Once again, Mr. President, welcome to the Philippines! And thank you for the friendship that we are enjoying between our two countries and peoples. Kamsahamnida. |
PGMA's
Speech during the State Dinner in Honor of President and Mrs. Roh
Moo-Hyun of the Republic of Korea |
| His Excellency the President of
the Republic of Korea and Madame Roh Moo-Hyun; Vice President de Castro; Former President
Ramos; Speaker de Venecia and Mrs. De Venecia; excellencies of the diplomatic corps; our
respective foreign ministers and Cabinet members and their ladies; members of the Korean
business delegation; members of the Philippine business community; officials of the
Philippine government; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen: The Republic of Korea and the Philippines have been special friends for the last 55 years. Ever since the Philippines send 7,000 of its young soldiers including a young officer named Fidel Ramos to help defend the Republic of Korea against North Korea's invasion. Since that time the Philippines and the Republic of Korea have been the best of friends. Today, there are many Korean students studying in the Philippines. And some of them will be with us in the inauguration of the Korea-Philippines training center tomorrow. There are also many Korean tourists very visible in the Philippines. Half a million of them visited the Philippines this year and we invite more of them to come. Tonight, we have many Korean business executives among our guests. And I wish to renew the call for them to invest some more in the Philippines and to trade some more with the Philippine private sector. We commit to make it easier for Korean investors by setting up a 'one-stop shop' for investors to be located in the board of investments. Korean business is in the Philippines in automotives, in infrastructure, in electronics and especially investing very heavily in electronic power plants in the Philippines and contributing to the electrification of our countryside, and we are grateful. This morning, President Roh in our bilateral summit announced that his new official development assistance program will give preferential treatment and attention to ASEAN and particularly the Philippines. We are grateful for this and because of this we should be able to work more effectively especially to secure energy resources for our two countries and our region. Indeed, we are close friends and steadfast allies whether it comes to economic or security concerns. And therefore I would like to end by expressing once again our best wishes for a peaceful solution to the situation in the Korean peninsula. Excellencies and guests, I ask all of you to join me in a toast for the continued good health of their excellencies President and Madame Roh. |
PGMA's
Speech during the Inauguration of the Korea-Philippines I.T.
Training Center |
| His Excellency President Roh
Moo-Hyun and Madame Roh; other officials of the government of Republic of Korea; our host,
Mayor Belmonte of Quezon City; the congressmen and congresswomen who are here with us
today; the recipient of this wonderful gift from the people and the government of the
Republic of Korea, secretary general and chairman of TESDA, Augusto Syjuco; other
officials of the Philippine government; guests; ladies and gentlemen. This Korea-Philippines information technology training center is a fruit of the deep friendship between our two countries -- Korea and the Philippines. The Republic of Korea has gifted the Philippines with this and other training centers as a gesture of their appreciation for our friendship especially in appreciation for our administration's continuously providing a regular transit point for north Koreans defecting to South Korea. On this occasion, I renew the commitment of our administration and my personal commitment to continue to do this for our brothers in North Korea who wish to go and live in the Republic of Korea. Because it is a continuation of the policy started 55 years ago by the government of the Philippines and especially because it was my father, at that time Congressman Diosdado Macapagal, who sponsored the resolution to send Filipino soldiers to help the Republic of Korea repel a communist invasion from North Korea. And now, just as we helped the Republic of Korea 55 years ago in the battle against communist North Korea, today, the government and the people of the Republic of Korea are helping us in our war against poverty. In our war against poverty, our growth sectors are our human resource skills-intensive sectors like tourism and information technology and Korea helps us in both of these main growth sectors. Korea is the most important source of tourism today in the Philippines. And as for information technology, Korea is the acknowledged leader in wide broadband in the whole world and acknowledged as having the highest internet penetration rate in the whole region. During the APEC Summit last November that President Roh so impressively hosted, all the leaders of the 21 economies of APEC were so impressed with the state-of-the-art of I.T. technology that was shown by Korea in its exhibit. We saw the biggest television screen in the world, and we saw the smallest television screen because that smallest television screen doubles up as a cell phone. That is why we have high hopes that this Korea-Philippines information technology center will boost Filipino competence in information technology, because our growth sectors are our human resource skills-intensive service sector like tourism and ICT, our fight against poverty relies on tapping the talent of our greatest assets -- our workers. I believe the people of Korea recognize the talent of our workers because there are many Filipino workers in the Republic of Korea. At the same time, the Philippines is the host of the biggest overseas Korean population in the region. There are as many Filipinos working in Korea as there are Koreans living in the Philippines. Many of the Koreans living in the Philippines are expatriates and professionals, but many of them also are students studying in our Philippine schools. In fact, I invited some of those Korean students -- they are here -- Korean students studying in the Philippine Women's University. I think our students will attest that Koreans are welcome to study in the Philippines. Koreans are welcome to visit the Philippines as the half a million tourist will attest from Korea, and Koreans are welcome to invest in the Philippines. And to make it easier for their investments, we hope that this I.T. center will also produce the human resources that will be able to develop the software needed to have a real "one-stop shop" for investments. This center, as I said earlier, is a gesture of support and friendship and appreciation for what the Philippines has done for the last 55 years and continuing in this administration for the continuation of democracy that the people of North Korea would like to enjoy when they move to South Korea. And the fruit of this center will be to help the Philippines acquire some of the I.T. skills that have made Korea a leader of the 21st century economy. So this center is a bridge between the friendship of the last 50 years and the friendship that will guide us in the 21st century. Long live the friendship between the Korean and Filipino people! Kamsahamnida. Mabuhay! |
