13 April 2016 - Upon the invitation of the Northern Territory (NT) Government, Philippine Ambassador to Canberra Minda Calaguian-Cruz participated in the Official Visit to the NT of the ASEAN Heads of Mission from April 03 to 06 in Darwin, NT.
Eight other Heads of Mission from Brunei Darrusalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam, and the Deputy Chief of Mission of Singapore, participated in the program. It marked the first time that the NT Government has invited the ASEAN Heads of Mission under its Open Territory Program, which showcases NT's business and trade opportunities, and its close trade links with ASEAN.
Australia’s NT has a long history of engagement with ASEAN Member States, and the establishment of the ASEAN Community offers tremendous opportunities for further developing the NT’s economic, political and cultural engagement with its northern neighbors. Deputy Chief Minister Peter Styles, in his capacity as the NT’s Minister for Asian Engagement and Trade, highlighted the NT’s strategic location as Australia’s gateway to Asia. Its well-developed resource, agricultural and tourism sectors provide ample opportunity for investment, while its reputation for quality goods and services underpins the NT’s status as a reliable market and valuable trade and investment partner.
Ambassador Calaguian-Cruz underscored that the newly-formed ASEAN Community is auspiciously placed to engage NT given the expected robust growth provided by the closer economic integration of ASEAN Member States, and given ASEAN’s high consumption activities, young workforce and increasing disposable incomes.
Connectivity is an ideal way to jumpstart ASEAN-NT cooperation, in the mould of the Roll-On-Roll-Off (RORO) project between the Philippines and Indonesia. She emphasized that since all governments have innate constraints, the private sector must step up to realize the full potential of cooperation, and personal linkages and people-to-people relations are keys to sustaining the gains from these platforms of engagement.
The visit included various presentations by government agencies such as the NT Departments of the Chief Minister, Business and Education, the Northern Australia Development Office, and the Northern Command of the Australian Defence Force, as well as the private sector, namely the Chamber of Commerce Northern Territory, the International Business Council, the National Critical Care and Trauma Centre, Menzies Health Research Institute, Charles Darwin University, and the Port of Darwin. END
