Philippines seeks to be English ‘hub’

THE PHILIPPINES aims to become the hub for English and personnel management training for Japanese firms looking to relocate to Southeast Asia in the wake of the disaster that hit the Northeast Asian country last March, said a Trade official who attended a regional meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 8-9.

“There was a proposal to make the Philippines the hub for teaching Japanese [executives] English and human resource development skills,” Ramon T. Kabigting, assistant secretary for international trade who attended the meeting, said by phone on Monday.

“The Japanese will bring the managers and other capabilities here,” he added, explaining that it was the head of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines, Inc. (JCCIPI) who floated the idea. “It’s a practical proposal.”
The meeting was held to discuss industry strengths among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in order to draw up a plan to compete with regional giants China and India in this regard.

Mr. Kabigting recalled that Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo “received a copy of the proposal earlier in the week…and, based on private discussions with the president of JCCIPI [Shoichi Kameyama], Secretary Domingo was supporting the plan.”

“Technology will… be driven out of Japan because of natural disasters and a lot of big businesses… will be going outside for this reason,” Mr. Kabigting said.

Ryoichi Ito, executive director of the Japan External Trade Organization’s office in Manila who attended the same meeting, confirmed the proposal in a separate phone interview on Monday.

“The only common language between any ASEAN country and Japan would be English and it is known that the Philippines is very good in that,” Mr. Ito said.
“The Philippines also has very good human resource development that different universities and schools like the Asian Institute of Management can teach.”
Still, Japan’s representatives at the meeting stressed the need for Southeasst Asian countries to ensure the smooth flow of goods, services and investments, Mr. Kabigting recalled.

“Japanese companies had operational concerns being in ASEAN countries… [and] they might be right to bring those up, because so many things are in place, but are we making them work properly?” the trade official said.

Mr. Kabigting added that “since the ASEAN has free trade agreements with India, China, and Japan, there have also been talks of harmonizing all these deals to simplify customs procedures and create common rules of origin.” –Businessworld