Prime Minister Wong’s visit strengthens PH-Singapore ties

**media[17515]**Following Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s state visit in August 2024, the visit made by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong earlier this week has tightened the ties that have linked the two neighbor countries who are stalwarts of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Bound by abiding trust and respect, Filipinos and Singaporeans have been steadfast regional neighbors. In May last year, the two countries marked the 55th year of bilateral relations. These relations have grown in many key areas including trade and investment, security and defense cooperation, cultural exchanges and people-to-people relations.An estimated 200,000 Filipinos live and work in Singapore and actively contribute to the economic development of both the Philippines and Singapore. Approximately 60 percent of Filipinos in Singapore are professionals and skilled workers, while the rest are employed as household service workers. Prime Minister Wong singled out the Filipinos’ valuable contribution to the containment of the coronavirus pandemic in the island-republic.In their bilateral talks in Malacañang, both President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. and Prime Minister Wong covered a broad spectrum of cooperative endeavors. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Singapore is one of the three top foreign investors in the country with a 12 percent share, next only to Japan’s 51 percent share and the United States’ 13 percent.The two partner-countries are also breaking ground in sustainability and new technologies, including renewal energy, highlighted by solar and wind energy projects that boost the ASEAN Power Grid, improve energy efficiency and enhance sustainability, thus ultimately fortifying climate change resilience.President Marcos shared that he and Prime Minister Wong had “extensive follow-through discussions on the results of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur last week, and we exchanged views on what we can further do together to make the ASEAN Community stronger and more resilient.” The two leaders reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to free trade and multilateralism, underlining the vitality of ASEAN 2045 and the two countries’ shared vision of a resilient and inclusive regional community.As signatories to the Paris Agreement, the two countries reaffirmed their resolve to activate a carbon credits mechanism that enables both countries to contribute to mitigating global warming. Incentivizing emission reductions through carbon credits purchase or sale bring about a quantifiable reduction or removal of greenhouse gas emissions and reduction of carbon footprints.To facilitate training and exchanges among health experts in both countries, the Philippines is eyeing to “soon conclude a bilateral agreement with Singapore on health cooperation.” The President also cited the Digital Leadership Program of the National University of Singapore that seeks to fast-track digital leadership and transformation across the Philippine civil service.Most significantly, the President conveyed to the Prime Minister the Philippines’ determination to “continue to be a committed advocate [for] the rules-based international order, one grounded on international law, in equity, and on justice” as a fulcrum for attaining peace and stability in the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea.President Marcos also acknowledged “Singapore’s quick and effective deployment of its air assets to assist our efforts in delivering immediate necessities to far-flung victims of a typhoon last October.”Finally, he conveyed the Filipino nation’s sincere congratulations to all Singaporeans, on the forthcoming celebration in August of the 60th year of independence. Indeed, he observed, “Singapore’s remarkable progress that has enabled it to become one of the world’s most stable, most admired countries…an achievement worth celebrating and, for the Philippines, worth emulating.”