13 new American base firms look to expand in the Philippines

 

A delegation of 13 leading US companies organized by the US-ASEAN Business Council concluded a visit to the Philippines last week on a buoyant note.

"Many companies on the delegation expressed a desire to expand their investments in the Philippines, which is the best testament to their confidence in the country," said council president Alexander C Feldman.

"The council looks forward to returning to the Philippines in June 2014 with a group of American CEOs to help underscore the seriousness and depth of interest that US business has in this economic success story," he added.

The delegation completed the visit on Wednesday. The mission was aimed at building economic ties and supporting the Philippines' ongoing economic progress.

The members were impressed with the successful reforms undertaken by the Benigno Aquino government.

"We applaud the steps the Aquino administration is taking to generate positive economic performance, and we look forward to working together to ensure that the economic expansion will continue," said the council's Philippines Committee chair, Philip Vaughn. "These steps will no doubt lead to greater investment opportunities for US companies in the Philippines."

Feldman said the Philippines was currently one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and American companies were impressed with macroeconomic reforms that had been executed thus far.

"The business environment has improved greatly through the leadership of President Aquino and his administration's focus on key macroeconomic reforms and good governance.

This progress is generating results as evidenced by the recent promotion of the Philippines to investment grade by Moody's Investors Service, as well as improvements in the world ranking of the Philippines in various surveys by the World Economic Forum, the Heritage Foundation and Transparency International," he added.

The Nation

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VOA: Philippines Eyes Swift Conclusion of West Philippines & South China Sea Arbitration

The Philippines is pressing forward with its legal challenge to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea. Philippine officials this week said they were hopeful the U.N. arbitration body could issue a ruling sooner than initially expected.

A top diplomat says the country is hopeful that the panel of the United Nations International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea will have a ruling before President Benigno Aquino's term ends in 2016.  Philippine officials had previously said the case would take three to four years to complete.

This week Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario told an audience in Manila that pursuing arbitration was the only viable option after Manila had "exhausted all diplomatic avenues" to try to settle its dispute with Beijing over contested rocks and outcroppings in the South China Sea.

"China's continuous overwhelming naval and maritime presence in the area is also contributing to the raising of regional tensions," he said.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have partial or total claims to the resource-rich and highly traversed sea.  China maintains it has indisputable sovereignty over nearly the entire sea.

The Philippines filed its case in January under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states that coastal nations are entitled to maritime territory that extends some 22 kilometers offshore. It also provides for a 370 kilometer economic exclusion zone for fishing and mining natural resources. While China has signed the convention, it has rejected the Philippine case.  Beijing has not responded to any of the subsequent proceedings, effectively making the Philippines the only active party.

Last week Paul Reichler, the Philippines' lead counsel, told the Wall Street Journal that if China continues "to hold to its position" he expects an award to come down by mid-to-late 2014.

Carl Thayer, a researcher on South China Sea disputes at the Australia Defense Force Academy, says international adjudicators, who are not connected to the case, have mixed views on the outcome.

He says there are two hurdles the Philippines must overcome before the tribunal can even hear its case.

"That the arbitral tribunal has jurisdiction, in other words it does not touch on matters that China has exempted itself from and that the Philippines' claim is well-founded in law.  And I think the latter is very strong," he said.

China's position

Thayer explains that before Beijing signed the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, it chose to opt out of international jurisdiction over some territorial issues, effectively forbidding outside scrutiny of some issues. The Philippines is trying to convince the U.N. tribunal to reaffirm its own territorial claim based on international law.

During a regular news briefing in Beijing Friday, VOA asked Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying if China plans to participate in the U.N. tribunal when the Philippines submits evidence for its claims in March.

She said China does not accept the arbitration request submitted by the Philippines side. She also urged the Philippines to resolve the dispute through bilateral negotiation.

Last month, China hosted a meeting with the 10-member Association of Southeast Nations to discuss how they would implement the conditions of an 11-year old non-binding pledge to peacefully manage the disputes in the South China Sea.  The Philippines has been pushing for negotiations on a legally binding code and is trying to drum up international support for it.

Voice of America

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Reuters: All Oil and 20 trillion cubic feet Gas Produced in Recto Bank would NOT be exported- Philippines

Philippines says gas from disputed field should be used domestically

The Philippines will insist that any gas produced from an offshore field a unit of Philex Petroleum Corp hopes to develop with China's CNOOC Ltd be used domestically, a senior energy official said on Wednesday.

London-listed Forum Energy Plc, a unit of Philex, is holding talks with CNOOC, the Hong Kong-listed unit of China National Offshore Oil Company, for a possible joint venture to explore for oil and gas reserves in an area of the West Philippine Sea, a deal that may later lead to a production agreement, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said.

Service Contract 72 in the Reed Bank holds the Sampaguita field, which is estimated to have 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, dwarfing Malampaya, the Philippines' current sole gas producer with only about 2.7 tcf of gas.

"What I know is they are having regular meetings, that's the way to move forward," Petilla told reporters. "Certainly, we will not agree that it (the gas) will be sold elsewhere when we actually need it," he said.

Manila needs to find a replacement for the natural gas produced in the Malampaya field, which is expected to operate only until 2024, Petilla said.

Any deal would have to be reviewed by government lawyers, but Manila is open to an ownership structure of SC 72 similar to that of Malampaya, he said.

Malampaya is 90 percent owned by a consortium led by Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and 10 percent held by a state agency.

China says it owns the Reed Bank, but SC 72 falls within the Philippines' 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), with Manila insisting on sole sovereignty over the waters.

"We maintain that the area that Forum Energy is exploring is clearly within our EEZ and therefore any exploitation of the same has to be in conformity with our laws," Philippine President Benigno Aquino said in a forum with foreign press.

Forum approached CNOOC as early as last year for an agreement on a joint exploration venture so that the gas resources in the SC 72 block could be developed despite the sovereignty dispute.

Forum Energy has extended its drilling programme for SC 72 by two years to August 2015 due to the territorial dispute.

Forum had earlier disclosed plans to conduct a survey to identify and evaluate other gas prospects near the Sampaguita gas field and the Reed Bank, despite problems with previous survey and drilling attempts due the diplomatic wrangling between Manila and Beijing.

When asked about how sovereignty issues raised by China and the Philippines over the waters weigh on the discussions between Forum and CNOOC, Petilla said: "Those are the governments, I'm hopeful of the commercial (talks)."

There was no immediate reply from Forum Energy when asked about the talks.

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