Trade fair introduces Canada to Cebuanos

North American country wants to further strengthen economic ties with PH

Canada’s ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder was in Cebu City yesterday for the first Canada Day Trade Fair.

Reeder said the trade fair is promoting the goods and services offered by Canadian companies as well as showcase Filipino firms such as Virginia Foods Inc., which imports meat from Canada.

As an export-driven economy, Canada aims to expand their trading activities by going to Cebu, which has the fastest growing economy outside of Manila.

According to Reeder, the Philippines is the second largest export market of Canada in the Southeast Asian region, with over 600 million Canadian dollars last year.

“Canada’s two-way trade to the Philippines also reached $1.7 billion, a 15 percent increase from that of 2012,” said Reeder.

Canada’s major exports to the country are meat, wood and cereals, while the Philippines exports are electrical machinery, medical and optical instruments and rubber.

“We are now also starting to export beef meat to the Philippines. I’m sure you will like our beef  as it has soft and tender meat.”

Pinoy-Canadians
In terms of people to people relations, the Philippines is the biggest source of new Canadians with more Filipinos migrating to the country every year, Reeder said.

“Based on our statistics projection, Filipinos in Canada will reach one million in 2020 out of the 34 million Canadian population. Now there are 800,000 Filipinos in Canada,” he said.

Some 31,000 Filipinos visit Canada every year as tourists and over 8,000 are temporarily working on construction and other skilled-related projects in Canada.

On the other hand, Canada is also among the Philippines’ top tourists group with about 100,000 Canadian tourists coming to the country every year.

Investments
“Companies like Manulife, Sunlife and recently Bombardier are already here in Cebu and a lot more coming, mostly in the ICT sector,” said Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Julian Payne.

Despite all these developments, however, both Payne and Reeder said the Philippines is way behind in terms of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) compared to our Asean neighbors in the ASEAN region. As of now, Canadian investments in the country are more from insurance sector, mining and outsourcing. Payne said the Philippines can expect more if we adopt a more enabling policy for foreign investors.

Cebu celebrated Canada’s 147th Day ahead of Canada and Manila through the one-day trade fair in Ayala Center Cebu yesterday and the networking cocktails at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel last night.

“Today, we’re celebrating Canada’s 147th birthday, first in Cebu and then Manila. We’re very proud of opening business presence in Cebu which is significant and which is growing,” Reeder said.

Reeder added that business should encourage opportunities in the Philippines so that those who are planning to go abroad should do it as a choice not as a necessity./ with reports from Zonah Mae K. Perez