Aquino to leave for Laos Sunday with 60-member delegation

President Benigno Aquino III. MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino is flying to Laos at past noon Sunday with a 60-member delegation to attend the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem), and pitch the Philippines as an investment hub.

The President and his delegation of Cabinet officials and business leaders are set to leave on a chartered Philippine Airlines flight for Laos at around 1 p.m. Sunday.

In his first attendance at the summit, the President will exchange views with other heads of states on the Eurozone crisis, trade and investment, energy and food security, disaster management, counter-terrorism, migration and regional issues, foreign affairs officials said.

Aquino will also call attention to the country’s gains in good governance and inclusive growth, and call for an enhanced Asia-Europe economic partnership, and underscore the need for upholding the rights if migrant workers.

This is the only forum where heads of states from Europe and Asia engage one another, and the Aquino’s  attendance signals the Philippines’ renewed focus on Europe as an economic and political partner, the officials said.

But otherwise, the President is looking forward to meeting his counterparts from Europe and Asia in his tight, two-day schedule, Malacañang said Saturday.

He is set to hold bilateral meetings with heads of states from Europe and Asia on a wide range of issues on the sidelines of the summit.

“Of course the President will convey the developments in the country to encourage other countries to look at us, and to seriously take another look at the Philippines, and consider putting their investments here,” Undersecretary Abigail Valte, deputy presidential spokesperson, said over government radio dzRB.

Aquino is meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on the Philippine maritime training and certification system, and its compliance with air safety standards.

He will also sit down for bilateral talks with Swiss President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf to tackle human rights compensation bill, cooperation in disaster risk reduction and management, and economic cooperation.

Other meetings have been lined up with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on defense and finance, and with Norwegian Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg on Norway’s role in the peace talks with rebels, and maritime and labor cooperation.

Aquino will also hold a dialogue with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on cooperation in defense and higher education.

But topping his itinerary is a meeting with the members of the relatively small Filipino community shortly after his arrival in Laos.

“At 6 p.m. Sunday, the President will have a meeting with the Filipino community,” Valte said. “Wherever he goes, he really makes it a point to be in touch with the Filipino community.”

Joining the President at the summit are Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, Ambassador to Laos Maria Lumen B. Isleta, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo, outgoing Energy Secretary and incoming Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras, Secretary Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Operations Office and Director General Arsenio Balisacan of the National Economic Development Authority.