MOU to develop New Clark City among those inked by Philippines, Singapore

SINGAPORE - The Philippines and Singapore have signed various memoranda of understanding and agreements during President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s state visit in the country.

Aside from the memoranda of understanding on digital cooperation, data protection and recruitment of Filipino healthcare workers, other agreements signed Wednesday include collaboration on business opportunities for the development of New Clark City as well as water collaboration.

The agreements include:

- Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Information and Communications Technology of the Philippines and the Ministry of Communications and Information of Singapore in the field of digital cooperation; and

- Joint Communiqué between the Department of Migrant Workers of the Philippines and the Ministry of Health of Singapore on the recruitment of Filipino healthcare workers.

These four were also signed:

- Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Personal Data Protection between the National Privacy Commission of the Philippines and the Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore;

- Memorandum of Understanding between the Bases Conversion and Development Authority of the Philippines and Enterprise Singapore for Singapore and Philippines to collaborate on business opportunities on the development of New Clark City;

- Memorandum of Understanding between the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System of the Philippines and the Public Utilities Board of Singapore on water collaboration; and

- Arrangements between the Singapore Armed Forces and Armed Forces of the Philippines concerning the assignment of a team to the Regional Counterterrorism Information Facility in Singapore.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the MOU between Enterprise Singapore and the BCDA aims to further boost trade and investment flows.

The DFA said the two countries are working for the progress on the expansion of the bilateral Air Transport Agreement, which will increase connectivity and create more opportunities for collaboration and growth.

"Both sides recognized the complementarities of their economies and looked forward to the development of even stronger linkages, both bilaterally and multilaterally, by leveraging common trade agreements," the DFA said.

When it comes to the arrangement on counterterrorism, the DFA said the two countries agreed to continue with regular high-level dialogues, military-to-military exchanges, cooperation on multilateral platforms, and to work towards the conclusion of a separate bilateral agreement that would further strengthen defense and security cooperation.

Marcos arrived in Singapore on Tuesday for a two-day state visit.

Before flying to Singapore, Marcos had a three-day state visit to Indonesia, where he had a meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo and witnessed the signing of agreements on the economy, culture, and defense as well as a roadmap for bilateral relations.

Marcos is expected to return to the Philippines on Wednesday night. —KG/KBK, GMA News