Australia bares 2025 growth plan for Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — The Australian government is looking to launch by early next year a program that will involve providing A$45 million (P1.69 billion) for the Philippines to boost trade and investments.

In a press conference, Australia Ambassador HK Yu said they are finalizing the economic growth development plan for the Philippines.

“We’re hoping that it will be done at least by the beginning of next year. That’s the aim,” she said.

Yu said the economic growth development plan, which will be implemented over five years, is being crafted with the Philippine government.

“We are actually engaging with all the relevant departments in the Philippine system to work out what it is that they actually need the most,” she said.

Yu said the plan is among the initiatives of the Australian government to help the Philippines in promoting greater trade and investments.

“A big chunk of these is really about helping the Philippines achieve good economic reforms. So it’s really tooling them with the appropriate skills, expertise and knowledge and even ideas based on Australia’s experience,” she said.

Aside from the economic growth development plan, Yu said Australia is also helping facilitate deeper investment in the Philippines with the help of the Export Finance Australia and Deals Team.

Export Finance Australia is supporting Australian trade and investment in Southeast Asia by financing infrastructure that benefits the region.

“We’ve heard a lot and we’re really interested in the infrastructure space. We heard a lot about the Build Better More program and the Philippine Energy Plan, which again, really excites us in terms of the opportunities that that presents for our organization,” Export Finance Australia managing director and CEO John Hopkins said.

Meanwhile, the Deals Team initiative, involves identifying possible projects in the country that Australian investors may consider.

“The Deals Team is busily engaging with lots of stakeholders to identify possible projects, which are now, as we speak, being fed into a pipeline of what we call a deals book for potential Australian investors to look at so that we can actually perform the useful matching, the matchmaking function,” Yu said.

Macquarie Group CEO and managing director Shemara Wikramanayake said there are 170 projects being considered by the Deals Team in the Philippines.

Wikramanayake is leading a delegation of 14 Australian businesses that visited the country from Sept.5 to 6 to explore opportunities.

C-level executives comprising the delegation are from Australia’s pension funds Australian Super and Future Fund, institutional investors IFM Investors and Investible, infrastructure firm Plenary Group, resources equity firm EMR Capital, corporate firms ANZ and Telstra and agribusiness players Bega Foods, Costa Group, GrainCorp, Sunrice and Pristine Pacific.

Two-way trade between the Philippines and Australia reached P378 billion last year.

In 2023, investments from Australia to the Philippines reached P277 billion.