British Permanent Under-Secretary visits Manila
Sir Simon Fraser will visit Manila on November 5 and 6 as part of Britain's strategic engagement with the Government of the Philippines.
Simon Fraser will meet Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Secretary Jose Rene Almendras and other senior officials whilst in Manila to discuss a range of bilateral and global issues. He will also meet business leaders as part of ongoing efforts to maintain the growth of trade and investment between the two countries that has been achieved in recent years.
He will also visit the Global Transaction Processing Centre and Regional Corporate Services hub. Manila was chosen as the ‘hub’ for the largest centre for the FCO’s shared services, due to the Philippines’ global excellence and competitiveness in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector. The British Embassy Manila now employs up to 200 staff at peak times, including over 160 Filipinos.
This will be Simon’s second trip to the country as Permanent Under-Secretary, the first being in 2011. The UK has been stepping up its engagement with the Philippines as one of its key partners, aiming to double bilateral trade by 2015 and mounting its second GREAT campaign to boost business and cultural collaborations with the Philippines.