TOKYO, Japan – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is inviting Japanese businessmen to participate in the Philippines’ natural gas industry, saying it is a secure, stable and efficient source of energy, and one practicable to the operations of the Japanese companies in the Philippines.

Speaking at a Natural Gas Forum jointly put together yesterday by the Department of Energy and Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC) at the Mai Room of the Imperial Palace here, the President said the power sector in the Philippines is the key reform area, the reason she is addressing the forum here.

"Indeed, we need to reform our power sector because we have great needs for power in the years to come," she said.

The President said the Philippines will need an additional 6,000 megawatts (MW) capacity over the next ten years and two-thirds of this, or 4,000 MW can be powered by indigenous natural gas.

"If we take the period 2003-2006, our main island of Luzon, where 60 percent of the citizens and where Metro Manila is located, will require 1,600 MW additional power," she said.

The island of Visayas will require 240 additional MW and the southern island of Mindanao will require 260 MW during the period between now and 2006, the President added.

The President said that it takes three years to construct, operate and establish a power plant. "Thus we need to act now," she said.

The answer, she emphasized, to sourcing this huge capital requirement of the power sector is privatization.

The President expressed the hope that the Japanese businessmen will play a major role in this key reform program of the government.

The President said the future of clean energy will take roots in the main island of Luzon, stressing that her government will give priority to natural gas, geothermal and wind power.

Accordingly, the President said she will privatize the Sucat Power Plant in Metro Manila in October this year and the Limay Power Plant in Bataan by December this year to enable investors sufficient time to convert these plants into natural gas.

To complement these efforts, the President said she has instructed the Philippine National Oil Company Exploratory Corporation (PNOCEC) to develop the Batangas-Manila and Manila-Gas Pipelines.

He also urged the PNOCEC to maximize private sector participation even in these pipeline projects.

The President invited the Japanese investors to talk to the president of PNOCEC, to discuss possible partnerships or joint undertakings.

In her talks with the members of the media who accompanied her on the Japan trip, the President said that one of the important legacies of her administration is the birth of the natural gas industry in the Philippines.

"The industry was born in October 2001 when the commercial operation of the Malampaya Deep Water Gas to Power Project began.

"Exactly a year later, in October 2002, we launched the natural gas public transport program," she said.

The President also disclosed that in her state visit to South Korea before coming to Japan, Daewoo informed her of their investment of some $20 million to assemble compressed natural gas buses.

TOKYO – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo thanked Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday for his government’s donation of eight fighter planes that will be delivered sometime in August and September this year.

In her bilateral meeting with the Thai prime minister at the Imperial Hotel here, the President said Thaksin could personally bring four of the eight fighter planes to the Philippines in August. The remaining four aircraft are slated for delivery in September.

The Thai leader’s delivery of the planes will also be an opportunity for him to lecture on what she dubbed as "Thaksinomics," the President added.

The Macapagal-Arroyo administration is currently applying what it termed the Thaksin policy on small and medium enterprises (SME) – the one town, one product program – and on housing, two of the priorities of the President in her eight-point agenda for the remainder of her term.

The President and the Thai premier likewise exchanged notes on their respective governments’ anti-drug campaigns.

"I think he can also share with us some of those things Thailand has been doing very successfully," the President said, among them their SME policies, housing program and anti-drug campaign.

The President explained that the military planes have been used in solving the insurgency problem of Thailand. Now, they have no more insurgency, she said.

Thaksin, who has already been to the Philippines on a state visit, will be officially visiting the country to deliver a lecture on his very successful economic policies.

Such policies are important in a world where exports are "iffy and foreign investments are very cautious," the President said.

The President explained that Thailand and the Philippines are building up domestic demand. "That’s because we are relying on investments not from those BOI foreign investments but on our SMEs, our own domestic investments and housing," she said.

The President and the Thai prime minister also noted that their joint negotiations with Europe have resulted in a generous quota of their canned tuna to Europe.

Prior to this, the President said that Europe was giving these tuna quotas to their former colonies at the expense of the Philippines and Thailand.

"Now we are getting a fair treatment," the President said.

Tokyo (via PLDT) – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today stressed the close economic ties that have developed through fruitful and various cooperation activities between the Philippines and Japan for many years.

In her meeting with the Japanese head of government at 231 Nagata-Cho, Chiyoda-Ku here, the two leaders recognized the desirability to further strengthen these economic ties and bring them to a higher level of development.

The two leaders also exchanged views on the need for the speedy setting up of a Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

The two leaders likewise reiterated the need to deepen the complementaries as well as the competitiveness of the two economies.

They agreed that the key to deepening economic ties would be further liberalization and facilitation of trade in goods and services and investments.

President Macapagal-Arroyo and Prime Minister Koizumi concurred that new areas for ushering economic growth need to be explored, especially on human resources, exchange of professional expertise and technical know-how, as well as opportunities from information technology-based services.

They also acknowledged the great amount of work that went behind the four rounds of meetings of the Working Group of the JPEPA, which began in August last year.

The two leaders shared the view that the next stage, with the expanded participation from academic and private sectors for JPEPA, would commence upon submission of the recommendation of the Working Group in August and complete the necessary tasks for the further stage.

TOKYO (Via PLDT) – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today she will push through with her scheduled one-week visit to Mindanao from June 10 to 17.

Talking with the members of the Philippine media who accompanied her to Japan, the President said the main purpose of her one-week visit to Southern Philippines is to ensure that the Mindanao National Initiative, or Mindanao Natin, that she unveiled more than a month ago has taken momentum.

The President had planned to go to Mindanao following her successful state visit to the United States last month but decided to postpone her trip because of the bad weather.

The President pointed out that she had to attend to the devastation brought about by Tropical Storm Chedeng in Luzon. She went instead to Northern and Central Luzon to inspect the damage caused by the storm.

Mindanao Natin is a P5.5-billion package for the rehabilitation and development of Muslim Mindanao. Aside from the P5.5 billion, there is the $1.3 billion in official development assistance (ODA) which is being geared to finance priority projects in Muslim Mindanao.

According to the President, the Mindanao Natin program will be implemented within the next 12-14 months in over 5,000 barangays in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Regions 9 and 12, Lanao del Norte, and Damulog in Bukidnon.

The President said that Mindanao has always been touted as a land of promise and rightfully so because of Mindanao’s abundant resources, ideal weather conditions and vast land area.

Mindanao Natin, the President said, will be implemented through a 10-point program, topped by ensuring a substantial implementation of the Tripoli Agreement.

The other salient points of Mindanao Natin are as follows:

--Rehabilitation of the barangays of the Pikit-Pagalungan Pagagawan cluster and the Carmen-President Roxas-Damulog cluster. In these areas, while the AFP maintains active defense, community-based local monitoring teams will be formed and empowered.

-- Formation of a new breed of soldiers, the Sala’am soldiers, half of whom are Muslims, and whose objective is not only to protect the Muslim communities in the areas where they are fielded but also assist those communities in needed socio-civic services.

-- Financing and skills training for livelihood opportunities and alternative income sources in agriculture, trade, industry and services.

-- Implementation of a rebel returnees program to be implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development on behalf of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process.

-- Creation of one-stop action centers for land documentation and titling programs to be implemented by the Office of Muslim Affairs and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

-- Implementation of a distance-learning program through mobile vans of the Technology and Livelihood Resources Corporation to provide both basic education and specialty training courses.

-- Undertaking youth and culture-sensitive programs on sports and arts to develop well-rounded personality for the Muslim youth.

-- Implementation of community-scale, quick-gestation infrastructure projects, including P281 million worth for the ARMM, P71 million for Region 9, and P73 million for Region 12.

TOKYO (via PLDT) – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’ s state visit to South Korea and working visit to Japan have defined the framework of Philippine economic partnerships with neighbors and friends in the wake of new challenges brought about by the 21^st century.

The President, in talks with Filipino mediamen who were with her during the trips, said the most important development after the Iraq war was the realization that the East Asian region would have to be more responsible for its economic and political security.

"That’s why my talks with both the leaders of both Japan and Korea were with regard to political and economic security," she said.

The President said the Filipino people have to look at the strategic long-term economic relationship with Japan.

Japan, she said, has been the Philippines’ foremost official development assistance (ODA) sponsor, "number one investor, one of the top tourist sources, one of the top trading partners."

"That is our relationship with the people of Japan, it is long-standing," she added.

The Chief Executive said the political and economic issues she took up with Asian leaders were tied up with her aggressive campaign against poverty and the fight against terrorism.

She stressed that the fight against terrorism could not be achieved with military and intelligence initiatives alone, but has to be complemented by moves to stamp out the breeding grounds for recruits for terror.

She said terrorism could be done away with "by promoting economic stability through investments, trade and official development assistance."

"That has been my mission in all of these visits," the President said, adding that her talks with Korean and Japanese state officials included an economic component.

"In the end, the overarching desire is to win the battle against poverty which has been complicated now by the specter of terrorism," she said.

The President, on the last day of her Japan visit, had one-on-one talks with officials of major companies which have Philippine operations, particularly with Honda Motors’ Hiroyuki Hosoda, Marubeni Corporation’s Nabuo Katsumata, and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation’s Rolf Eckrodt.

She also had bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the Prime Minister’s Office here.