MikeLigalig.com

by pna

Three bilateral agreements in the areas of tourism, defense, and energy were signed Tuesday between the governments of the Philippines and New Zealand designed to enhance bilateral relations between the two countries.

President Benigno S. Aquino III and Prime Minister John Key witnessed the signing of agreements in a ceremony here.

An arrangement on working holiday scheme between the Philippines and New Zealand was signed by Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and his counterpart Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully.

This reciprocal arrangement is the first working holiday arrangement negotiated by the Philippines. It complements the strong people-to-people links that it has with New Zealand, thereby providing a way for young people to experience each other’s culture.

The working holiday scheme will provide 100 temporary entry (12 month) visas to citizens between 18 to 30 years of age in each direction to New Zealand and Philippines. Once qualified, participants are limited to a maximum of three months’ work with one employer and may enroll in training or study courses within the same period.

“The endpoint is to increase the body of knowledge available with the endpoint of going back home to be able to share this expertise with the rest of our countrymen,” President Aquino said of the agreement at a joint press conference held in the Parliament Building.

The implementation of the agreement will occur after some final process issues are worked out. It is expected that the issuance of the first visas under the scheme will start next year.

A memorandum of agreement on defense cooperation was also signed to provide a formal framework for dialogue and cooperation on defense issues reflecting New Zealand’s existing defense activities with the Philippines.

The agreement, which was signed by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Minister McCully, includes meetings between senior and military representatives, education and capacity building, training activities and exercises, information exchanges and multilateral cooperation.

When asked whether this particular agreement had something to do with the ongoing territorial disputes that the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries have with China over the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), President Aquino responded: “Defense cooperation should not be seen as offensive to anybody, I think… Defense is just that, (it) increases our capabilities to defend ourselves against not necessarily superpower threats but even terrorist threats.”

The President said that this agreement only “formalizes that which has already been existing” so that both countries can exchange experiences and best practices toward improving their respective forces in the arena of shared threats especially in terms of terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking, among others.

“There is need for exchange of information and abilities or enhancing each one’s abilities,” he stressed.

Key, for his part, underscored that “peace and stability in the South China Sea is critical because Asia is the fastest growing partner of the world” and they want to see its growth continued.

“Anything that disrupts its growth will have implications for the New Zealand economy. So we think peace and stability is extremely important,” Key said.

Key added, however, that New Zealand doesn’t wish to take sides on territorial disputes but does encourage dialogue and discourse towards a peaceful finding of solution to these issues which President Aquino appreciated.

“A system where (there is) peaceful resolution of disputes should be to everybody’s interest to foster and to make a reality and, towards that end, we thank countries like New Zealand amongst others that have joined in the voice to having a rules-based approach in settling all of these disputes,” the President said.

The third agreement signed between the Philippines and New Zealand was on geothermal energy cooperation which intends to provide a formal government-to-government framework to support commercial geothermal development between the two countries.

Earlier, a business deal between the Energy Development Corporation of the Philippines and New Zealand’s GNS Science was forged during a business event held in Auckland which President Aquino also witnessed.

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