Italian companies have expressed their interest to invest in the Philippines and participate in the country’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program eyeing smaller projects.
According to a statement from the PPP Center, the Italian companies expressed their interest during a pre-travel briefing which was attended by PPP center Deputy Executive Director Ferdinand Tolentino.
It said that Confindustria and the Philippine Embassy in Rome organized the briefing in preparation for the November 2012 business mission of the Italian companies to the Philippines.
Confindustria is Italy’s largest business organization with 149,000 member companies representing the manufacturing and services sectors.
Tolentino presented the developments in the Philippine PPP Program. The PPP Center added that Italian companies inquired about the pipeline of PPP projects, saying that they were particularly interested to be involved in tourism, agriculture and mining infrastructure projects.
“The good thing about the Italians is that they have several small and medium size corporations. Hence, they are also considering the smaller PPP projects and are not limiting themselves to the big ticket PPPs, Tolentino revealed.
The PPP Center further said that the 18 Italian companies that attended the pre-travel briefing represented various sector s such as renewable energy, construction, defense, industrial automation systems, airlines, services and architecture.
Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to Italy Virgilio Reyes Jr. and Jose Antonio Buencamino, Commercial Counsellor of the Philippine Trade Investment Center in Rome, presented the recent economic developments and various business opportunities in the country. They also shared practical tips on how to do business in the Philippines.
Simultaneously, participants in Manila also participated in the pre-travel briefing via tele-conference. The participants include trade and Industry Undersecretary Cristino Panlilo, Italian Ambassador to Manila Luca Fornari, and representatives from the Italian Chamber of Commerce, the European Chamber of Commerce and Italian businesses operating in the country.
Source: Manila Times; Business; 15 October 2012
