Q: Your Excellency, ties between India and the Philippines can be traced back to Malay culture, which has a clear imprint of Indian and Islamic influence. The Indian community in your country is possibly too small on which to build bilateral ties. But something on which bilateral ties can be pushed is President Arroyo’s enthusiasm for India. She realized that for 50 years Philippines and India were divided by the Cold War. But now, in the era of globalisation, ASEAN, etc the Philippines cannot contemplate a future without harnessing the vast resources of India into the developmental processes. How do you wish to use your stint in India to further strengthen the relations between the two countries?

H.E. Mrs. Laura Quiambao-Del Rosario: This is my personal assessment of things. However, I believe that this assessment somehow reflects reality and my own government’s views. I always point out that the Philippines is a small country – small in the sense of land mass and size in relation to India. India is 11 times bigger than the Philippines. And the Philippines is not really a political player in the South Asian region. We are in the “far” east of Asia. Many often see us, within the South-East Asian region, as part of ASEAN first before they regard us independently of the group.

Having put impressions and facts in perspective, I want to pursue economic diplomacy for my country. That is my priority. Even cultural diplomacy is difficult because it is so costly to bring our artistes to India because of the distance and cost of travel. As for economic diplomacy, I think I have made some headway. Whenever there is a meeting of bodies like CII, ASSOCHAM, FICCI, etc., I make it a point to be present to meet their members. I am starting with medium enterprises, even small ones. If I can take an Indian company to my country and get 10 Filipinos employed, I know I will have done something concrete.

Our ties are not easily noticeable by people in India because geographically we are the farthest. When you talk of relations between India and South East Asia, we tend to be overlooked in the bilateral area because we are farther from India than the other nine members of ASEAN. There is not much similarity in our cultures either. We are “closer“ to the West in terms of culture because we are predominantly Christians and have been influenced by both the Spaniards and the Americans. So, Filipinos are considered “the least Asian” in religion and culture among their Southeast Asian brothers, the rest of whom have been deeply influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism.

If we look at India’s officialdom and our leadership, we have had few interactions in the past. Nevertheless, the Philippines has so far more official visits here than Indian officials visiting us. Our President was here in 1997. Our Minister/Secretary of Budget and our Minister/Secretary of Labour, the Deputy Minister/Secretary of Trade and our Generals were here to attend conferences or for bilateral meetings last year. We are hoping for more visits to the Philippines by India’s officials.

Q: Given the potential of the two countries, India-Philippine bilateral trade is comparatively small. India’s exports to the Philippines constitute only 0.8 percent of total Philippine imports. There are many promising areas for joint ventures and industrial collaborations between India and the Philippines such as processing and packaging of fruits and vegetables, medical equipment and instruments, drugs and pharmaceuticals, computer software and IT services.

Our export to India is also very small. It is among the lowest in ASEAN. What are we pursuing now? The first is IT cooperation and the IT sector in the Philippines is widening that. The Philippines acts as a business processing outsourcing centre and can also act as a recovery centre. For example, if there is a disruption in India, the Philippines can pick it up. Or the other way around. We can transfer business processes back and forth in a seamless way so that things are done faster. As they say in business these days, when America sleeps, we wake up. We are exactly 12 hours ahead of the US East Coast. India also does the same thing, they pick up where companies in the West leave off.

In all of Asia, Philippines and India, both democratic in orientation, are very English-oriented. Our language of communication and our language of business is English. Back home, even a taxi driver or a store clerk can understand and reply in English.

So we are looking at many areas, not just trade in goods but also trade in services, investments in infrastructure and joint business ventures. We have been working on existing and potential projects with IRCON, GAIL and other state companies. I hope an Indian company can participate in our Metro Rail Subway Transport. Our Ministry/Department of Energy also wants to push for the use of compressed natural gas in urban areas. Indian companies can get involved in the infrastructure and transport aspects of CNG and even in exploration of natural gas.

We are trying to get a Filipino corporation to start a joint venture to produce fruit juices in India or get our biggest brewery to set up operations in India.

We have also looked at expanding joint ventures in animation. Our animators are painters with richer colours and richer palettes. We can cooperate in this field. We can use your computer software people and our animation artists can join hands with them.

In the future I hope that we can have joint ventures in education and perhaps, in the field of technology like servicing and maintenance of Indian land and air transport being used in South East Asia. With a service centre in the Philippines it will be easier for India to sell its good but cheap land and air transport to the public and private sectors in our part of the world.

In short, the Philippine mission in India is trying its best within its resources to get Indian companies to take a closer look at us. In the same way, we are trying our best to get Filipino entrepreneurs and capitalists to take a closer look at investing in India, a big market with increasing incomes. Our entrepreneurs must also “look westward” towards India as you have to “look farther east” to the Philippines.

Q: The other area where India has been able to help is the pharmaceutical industry in which your President has taken a keen interest. What is your government doing about this?

On pharmaceuticals, our President has started a well-received programme of bringing in cheap drugs from India for our public hospitals. In fact, in February, the head of the Philippines International Trading Corporation – the equivalent of your State Trading Corporation – came here and held discussions. He came with a long shopping list: there were drugs, pharmaceuticals, and many industrial raw materials needed for our manufacturing industries.

Q: A number of Indians have been honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay award and the Philippines has a special place in our hearts.

The most number of Ramon Magsaysay awardees, considered the Asian Nobel Prize, are Indians. Next year, we will be marking the 50th anniversary of the Magsaysay Awards. The two biggest celebrations will of course be held in India and in the Philippines.

We are happy to note that before Mother Teresa of India got her Nobel and Dr. M. S. Swaminathan got his World Food Prize (the Nobel for Agriculture), the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation had already recognized and awarded them both for their achievements.

Q. What has been your impression of this country?

When I was asked by friends and colleagues where I wanted to go for my diplomatic posting, I said India. Why India, everyone asked me. They expected me to want to return to North America or to Europe as my assignments have always been in developed countries – I was in Vienna, Singapore and then in Washington, D.C. I told everyone who asked me that question that some exciting things had been happening in India and there is much that could be done in expanding economic cooperation.

When I was in Washington, President Bill Clinton and the First Lady, Hillary Clinton spoke glowingly of India after their visit here. At that time too, I was monitoring the lobby on immigration laws and Microsoft’s Bill Gates was pushing for a bigger quota for Indian engineers. If the two Bills – Clinton and Gates – were looking at India with deepened interest, then there must be something here. It was in late 1999 or early 2000 that I had made up my mind about coming to India someday.

I was fortunate enough to have been assigned at the Philippine Secretariat for APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) as Senior Special Assistant to the APEC Senior Official of the Philippines and to have been the Senior Special Assistant to the Under secretary (Deputy Minister) for International Economic Relations on a concurrent capacity. Those exposures to both regional and bilateral trade and investment meetings prepared me for economic diplomacy.

I feel very lucky to have come to India at this time, and sooner than I expected. Economically you have successfully embarked on the take-off phase. And then the recent elections show that in this age of global trade and investment where “economic divides” within a country and within a region have become common, those who have been left behind can have their voices heard and their needs noticed through the ballot box. India’s democracy has given a chance to the people who cannot “lobby” for their interests– the way big companies can in an entrepreneurial economy – to be heard. And I take the coincidence of our national elections being held on the same day, 10 May, as a truly nice synchronicity.