EU envoy says human rights, democracy good for economic growth

European Union (EU) Ambassador to the Philippines Franz Jessen on Friday argued that human rights and democracy are crucial to the economic development of a country.

Jessen made the remark amid President Rodrigo Duterte's tirades against the EU over its criticisms on the administration's controversial and deadly campaign against illegal drugs.

"Within the political dialogue, we have a number of elements... How do we promote democracy, how do we promote the human rights and the other values that are important for us?" the EU envoy said in an interview on News to Go.

Asked why the EU kept on raising the issue of human rights in the Philippines, the envoy said, "Why do we do that?... It is crucial not only to the well being of the people but we also see overtime that things like different values and human rights, democracy are good for economic growth," he said.

Jessen said a country's economic progress is dependent not only on its mineral resources but also on the well-being of its people.

He added that European companies are taking into consideration issues hounding a country in their investment decisions.

"So companies that are investing big amounts of money in a country, they want to make sure that they do that using a system that they are quite familiar with from back home and a system that they can depend," Jessen said.

Despite the tirades of Duterte against the bloc, the envoy said the economic relations between the Philippines and the EU were "doing very well."

"Export from Philippines and EU this year is growing by 34 percent, it’s the highest growth rate that you receive in the world towards the EU market," Jessen said.

"We are still the biggest foreign direct investor in your country so in economic side, it is going very very well," he added. — Ted Cordero/MDM, GMA News