17 October 2013 -- Under the auspices of the Philippine Embassy in Prague, a seminar in culmination of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Philippine-Czech diplomatic relations will be held at the Metropolitan University, Prague (MUP) on October 18.
In collaboration with the Embassy’s Chargé d’Affairés, a.i. (CDA) Juan E. Dayang, Jr. and the rest of the staff, Dr. Tomáš Petrů, Head of MUP’s Department of Asian Studies, will conduct the seminar, aptly and descriptively entitled, “Czech-Philippine Relations at 40: Unique History, Promising Future.”
The seminar aims to highlight the 40-year milestone that the Philippines-Czech relations have attained through unique historical and cultural connections, which even date back to a hundred years or more, to the friendship of Dr. Jose Rizal and Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, to the first Czech Jesuit priests in the Philippines, or to the shared devotion to the Sto. Niño. At the same time, the Seminar will attempt to examine how bilateral relations can be further strengthened through mutually beneficial economic relations.
As an added treat, Director General Lilia B. De Lima of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) will be one of the resource speakers at the seminar. She is slated to deliver a presentation on opportunities for Czech investors in Philippine economic zones. Director General De Lima will be in Prague from October 17 to 18 as part of PEZA’s European Investment Road Show.
Apart from Czech university students and members of the Czech academe, the Embassy also invited the members of the diplomatic corps in Prague, the Czech government agencies, business groups led by the Philippine-Czech Business Council, and the members of the Filipino community. END