Interview: Philippines' Representative on Mutual Visa Waiver Policy

TaiwanPlus News

Cheloy Garafil, chair of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, shares her hope for more investment and people-to-people ties between Taiwan and the Philippines after the two sides allowed reciprocal visa-free entry for two-week visits effective from July 1.

Transcript

00:00What do you make of this visa relaxation, the timing and the 14-day condition?

00:07And it's something that's been in negotiations for some time now.

00:11And it shows really the significance of, it shows the openness of our government to really

00:21promote and strengthen our people-to-people ties.

00:26And of course, it will facilitate entry of Taiwanese and also facilitate trade and investment

00:32also and other cultural exchanges.

00:34How is Taiwan's image in the Philippines and how do they view Taiwan?

00:39When you implemented the no visa policy, that's when Filipinos started to consider Taiwan.

00:47And now we've seen that Filipinos have become the number one source of tourism for Taiwan.

00:54Back in April, the Philippine government actually relaxed this restriction to allow for Philippine

01:00officials to come to Taiwan under their ordinary passports in official visits.

01:05So do you see an interest from more Philippine officials to come to Taiwan in the future?

01:11The circular that you're talking about is memorandum circle number 82, which just clarified an existing

01:20rule with respect to visits of our officials to Taiwan.

01:25It actually opened up the trips of our, or the visits of our officials in order for them to

01:33attend to cooperation, possible partnerships with their counterparts here in Taiwan.

01:38Taiwan.

01:39Are they mostly manufacturing?

01:40Are they mostly cultural?

01:41Yeah, there's been lots, like in agriculture, in technology, in disaster resilience, in food

01:50security, in research and development.

01:52I can go on and on, but yeah, there have been really an influx of interests with respect to,

02:02you know, strengthening our partnership and collaboration with Taiwan.

02:07Are there any other new areas for cooperation that you want to see more in the future?

02:13One of the major, major areas that we are working very hard with our Department of Trade and Industry

02:20here is to really convince the Taiwanese businessmen to relocate or to at least expand their business in the Philippines.

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