A TOTAL of 21 agreements with an investment value of $82.9 million were signed between private firms from the Philippines and Israel during President Rodrigo Duterte’s four-day visit to Jerusalem.

The agreements--three memoranda of agreement (MOA), 11 memoranda of understanding (MOU), and seven letters of intent (LOI)--are expected to generate some 790 jobs for Filipinos.

Duterte, who witnessed the signing of the business deals, assured Israeli companies that he will find ways to curb bureaucracy and make it easier for investors to put up businesses in the Philippines.

“I’m going to make it simpler and simpler, the rules, when I go back. And I want it really to be graft-free,” the President said in a speech delivered in Israel on Tuesday. (SunStar Philippines)