The Philippines and Singapore signed eight Memoranda of Understanding yesterday as President Duterte and President Halimah Yacob renewed the ties between the two Southeast Asian countries.
Duterte and Halimah witnessed the exchange of the eight MOUs after their bilateral meeting in Malacañang.
These are:
1. Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Education and Temasek Foundation International and Nanyang Polytechnic International Programme on Innovations and Teaching and Learning of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) with Design Thinking.
2. MoU between the Department of Agriculture and Enterprise Singapore on Agricultural Cooperation and Related Activities.
3. MoU between Department of Trade and Industry of the Republic of the Philippines, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority of the Republic of the Philippines, and Skills Future Singapore Agency of the Republic of Singapore on cooperation on human capital development and rescaling and skills upgrading of workforce.
4. MoU between the Development Bank of the Philippines and Infrastructure Asia Singapore on knowledge sharing to support infrastructure development.
5. MoU between Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and Public Utilities Board.
6. MoU between the National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Republic of the Philippines and Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth of the Republic of Singapore on Cultural Cooperation.
7. MoU between Infrastructure Asia and Public-Private Partnership Center on assisting Philippine local implementing agencies with the development or implementation of PPP projects.
8. MoU between the National Privacy Commission of the Republic of the Philippines and the Personal Data Protection Commission of the Republic of Singapore on Cooperation in Personal Data Protection.
Duterte said that with the signed agreements, both countries take the first of their eager steps toward another 50 years of natural, mutually reinforcing, and beneficial partnership.
With mutual trust, respect, and abiding amity, I am confident that we will achieve our shared goals and aspirations for our peoples, he said.
“We will forge ahead and bring our ties to even greater heights of (purposive) cooperation and friendship between the Philippines and Singapore,” he added. (Argyll Geducos)