Monday 28 May 2007

Rt Hon Helen Clark
Prime Minister

Address at
State Luncheon in Honour of
Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President of Republic of the Philippines

Beehive Banquet Hall
Parliament Buildings
Wellington

1.00 pm

Monday 28 May 2006

Your Excellency, President Arroyo,
Ministers from the Philippines, other distinguished members of the delegation,
Madam Speaker,
Ministers, Leader of the Opposition, and parliamentary colleagues,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is my pleasure to welcome the President of the Philippines, Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and her distinguished delegation of Ministers, legislators, business people, and officials to Parliament today. It is an honour to have you with us in New Zealand.

It has been my privilege to visit the Philippines twice in the last fourteen months – first for the Asia-Pacific Regional Interfaith Dialogue last year, and then again, in January for the East Asia Summit.

Madam President, your return visit is a clear sign of your personal commitment to strengthening relations between our two countries, and to the Regional Interfaith Dialogue.

The Dialogue, which we will both attend in Waitangi tomorrow, has an important role to play in the troubled world of the early 21st century. The New Zealand Government believes that interfaith and inter-cultural dialogue has the potential to improve the long-term prospects for peace and security in our region and globally. We hope that the Dialogue in Waitangi will strengthen co-operation between the region’s faith communities.

Madam President, as a founding member of ASEAN the Philippines has long played a leadership role in South East Asia. During the past three years when the Philippines has been New Zealand’s ASEAN dialogue partner, our engagement with ASEAN has stepped up markedly. The Philippines’ commitment to an open and inclusive vision for the East Asia Summit has also been appreciated by New Zealand.

Today we have also discussed the growing links between our countries. We have witnessed the signing of arrangements for co-operation between our Police forces, focusing on combatting trans-national crime and terrorism, and between our conservation authorities, to strengthen the protection and conservation of natural protected areas.

I am also pleased to note that our respective Human Rights Commissions have begun a dialogue, and are exploring ways in which New Zealand might share its experience and support the work of its Philippines counterpart. An initial area of cooperation is likely to be in support of human rights-based training for the Philippines police and defence forces.
The Philippines has become an important trade partner for New Zealand and is now our twelfth biggest market. Two-way trade between us was worth more than NZ$650 million last year. There are new opportunities to be explored in the energy and technology sectors, afforestation, and in the development of the Philippines’ dairy industry. The New Zealand / Australia / ASEAN Free Trade Agreement currently being negotiated may help open more doors, particularly in the areas of services and investment.

New Zealand has long been a development assistance partner of the Philippines, playing a role in developing forestry and geothermal energy. Our programmes today continue around the primary themes agreed the Philippines government : natural resource management; indigenous people; and governance.

Our government is also hopeful of building economic ties in areas which build people to people links. For example, tourism between New Zealand and the Philippines has great potential for growth, and would be facilitated by an air services agreement between us. There is also scope for many more links in the education sector.

But perhaps the greatest contributor to closer ties has been the growth of the Filipino community in New Zealand – now over 20,000 people. In my experience they are hardworking and friendly, and they are proud ambassadors for their country.

Madam President, your visit is a time to reflect on the many decades of co-operation and friendship between New Zealand and the Philippines, and to look to new areas of co-operation in the future. Once again, welcome to New Zealand.

Ladies and Gentlemen, can I now ask you to rise to a toast to the President and people of the Republic of the Philippines.

ENDS

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