TRANSPORTATION Secretary Arthur Tugade has invited Indian trade leaders to reinforce their business partnership with the Philippines.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) chief made the appeal during the 2021 Business Conference on India-Philippines Infrastructure Cooperation on Thursday, February 18.
Tugade said the key features of the business climate in the country now are "corruption-free, shorter processing time, and transparent."
Philippines has a president who will not tolerate graft and corruption, he added.
"You can come and business with us, you can come and partner with us with the assurance that this government and the various departments within this government, will fight and will not countenance corruption," Tugade said.
Aside from this, businesses in the country are rushed and barked on a very acceptable program of reducing processing time, he added.
"In other words, what takes much here before will now take weeks and days," Tugade said.
The DoTr head also described as icing of the cake the third reason -- everything done in relation to procurement is transparent.
"I speak for the DOTr. When you bid everything is online. When you bid it is recorded. When you bid it is all published. When you bid everything is transparent," Tugade said.
He also presented during the online conference the "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure program to the six Indian companies attending the virtual meet, namely, GMR Infrastructure Singapore, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) India, Ircon International Ltd., Shapoorji Pallonji Group, Adani Group, and the Rail India Technical and Economic Service (Rites) Ltd.
The conference was made possible by the support of both the Philippine and Indian Embassies, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Other ranking government officials present were Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez, Ambassador of the Philippines to India Ramon Bagatsing, Ambassador of India to the Philippines Shambhu Kumaran, and PCCI President Ambassador Benedicto Yujuico.
Also present in the virtual meeting were First Secretary Embassy of India Nishikant Singh, Director, PCCI Secretary General Ruben Pascual, Gateway Rail Freight CEO Sachin Bhanisali, GMR CEO Vivek Singhal, L&T Vice President KS Nathan, Ircon Chief General Manager Parag Verma, Shopoorji Pallonji General Manager Vineet Shankdher, Adani Head of Ports and Logistics Sandeep Mehta, Rites Ltd., and Executive Director Alok Garg.