Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman and CEO of DP World and Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation has met with senior officials in the Office of the President of Philippines to discuss trade and business opportunities.
Discussions held during the meeting in the Philippine capital Manila with Jose Rene Almendras, Cabinet Secretary, revolved around the government’s plans for development of the maritime sector, privatisation and efforts to develop infrastructure.
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Bin Sulayem said: “We had a cordial and fruitful meeting with Jose Rene Almendras who expressed great support of DP World’s operations in the Philippines and praised our contribution to the economic growth of the country.
“The Philippines is a strategic location for DP World and a key part of our Asia Pacific region operations.
“We are keen to share our experiences and apply our proven expertise in the marine, logistics and trade sectors to further develop our partnerships there. We look forward to building on our excellent relations in the future.”
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DP World operates four terminals in the Philippines and is a partner in Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI), which operates the South Harbour.
ATI is the sole container terminal and multi-cargo port operator, as well as the Philippines’ key terminal in providing services for containerised and non-containerised cargoes and passengers.
The company provides integrated port solutions to customers through facilities outside Manila which include the Port of Batangas, which has an annual throughput capacity of 300,000 TEU and handles passengers, Ro-Ro transport, bulk and break-bulk cargo.
Philippines non-oil foreign trade with Dubai grew by 13% in 2014 and reached more than US$634 million by the end of the year compared to more than $560 million in2013.
A growth of 5% in Dubai-Philippines non-oil trade was registered in the first nine months of 2015 from January and surged to more than $490 million compared to more than $468 million in the same period of 2014.
According to the World Bank, growth in the Philippines has averaged above 5% in the past decade. Economic growth was forecast to be 5.8% in 2015, rebounding to 6.4% in 2016.
