By Mayvelin U. Caraballo

The Philippines has committed to strengthen its economic and bilateral ties with Indonesia as they further deepen their collaboration in strengthening each other’s copper industry.

In a statement on Friday, the Board of Investments (BoI) said this commitment was made during an online copper industry dialogue with its Indonesian counterpart, the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), along with other state agencies and stakeholders on both sides.

During the dialogue, the investment promotions agency said both parties presented overviews of their respective mining/copper industry and existing/relevant policies, as well as possible collaboration areas.

“This serves as a venue for both countries to exchange information, share good practices, and present investment opportunities and areas for collaboration in the sector, among others,” Trade Undersecretary and BoI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo was quoted as saying in the statement.

“The dialogue [also] serves as a benchmark for future initiatives and collaborations between the Philippines and Indonesia in different sectors,” he added.

The BoI chief also hoped both countries would complement each other, with “Indonesia helping us develop our upstream, midstream and downstream copper industries that are needed to realize full integration of the industry, which we hope to achieve by 2030.”

BoI Executive Director Ma. Corazon Halili-Dichosa called the dialogue “a recognition of the opportunities for cooperation between our two countries,” and was confident “this will only be one of the many bilateral initiatives for the copper industry.”

Meanwhile, their Indonesian counterparts in the dialogue — Randi Anwar, BKPM director for Bilateral Investment Cooperation; Muhammad Wafid, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources’ director general for mineral and coal; and Bimo Pratomo, Ministry of Industry’s acting head of subdirectorate for non-iron metal industry — welcomed future collaboration and cooperation efforts to help each other’s downstream copper industries, according to the BoI.

The dialogue followed the launch of the BoI’s Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone Master Development Plan, which outlined the strategies to develop an ecological industrial zone that would anchor on the copper industry and other allied sectors, such as iron and steel and shipbuilding.

Another project, which features the copper industry as a priority sector for investment promotion, is the Make It Happen in the Philippines campaign.

“These projects relate to the current pandemic situation as it forms part of the Philippines’ plan in rebuilding the economy,” the BoI said.

Source: The Manila Times