A number of Qatari investors will visit the Philippines from July 9-17 as part of an Arab delegation, to explore business opportunities in the areas of agri-industrial foods, garments, furniture manufacturing, wellness tourism, and other economic zone activities.
The eight-day Arab business expedition to the Southeast Asian nation is being organised by a Qatar-based company in partnership with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), said Gregario Loayon (pictured), Special Advisor to the Director General of PEZA and Chairman and Managing Director of the Philippine Business Council (PBQ) in Qatar.
In an interview with The Peninsula recently, Loayon said the trade visit is part of a continuing initiative to promote the Philippines as a destination for businesses to support Qatari businesses, particularly in the country’s food sufficiency programme.
He added: “We have lands in the Philippines that can be converted into an economic zone, which can be used for planting crops or raising livestock, and then they can export the produce back to Qatar. In the past, we only had few economic zones, but Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has expanded the reach of the economic zones. We now have tourism economic zones where investors can develop resorts, or even a retirement free zone where we can convert a particular area into a retirement home for the elderly”.
According to Loayon, business climate has been progressing in the Philippines, with studies showing that the country is growing to be one of the bigger economies by 2050.
Speaking about Philippine businesses in Qatar, Loayon also said that a Filipino polyclinic will be opened in Qatar within this year. Groundwork for the polyclinic has already been started, but its location was not yet disclosed.
The polyclinic will be managed by the Medical Mission Group Hospital Management Company, a Filipino company registered with the Qatar Financial Centre, in partnership with local Qatari businesses, and the Philippine cooperative in Doha, which has earlier announced a plan to build the first Filipino hospital in Qatar.
Loayon added that a number of Filipino polyclinics are also planned to be built across Qatar in the future. “The Filipino hospital is an active conversation. It’s a big financial undertaking. So while there is a cooperative raising the funds we need to build it, we want to be able to start with the polyclinic. It will be a ‘hub and spokes’ model; the hub being the hospital and the polyclinics feeding into the hospital,” he added.
