Norway sees potential in fresh salmon trade

THE Royal Norwegian Embassy in Manila joined the World Food Exposition (WOFEX) from August 2 to 5 and presented the Norwegian Seafood Pavilion, which featured fresh catch from the cold waters of the Scandinavian country.

Norway is the second-largest seafood exporter in the world, known for prime quality seafood from the Atlantic Ocean. It implements strict rules and regulations in handling seafood, while ensuring that the produce is from a clean, healthy environment, and in compliance to the sustainable standards of fish farming.

The Philippines, though, lags seafood trade, compared with its peers in the region such as Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Taiwan, according to the embassy. However, Ambassador Christian Halaas Lyster shared the potential for growth for this segment: “We see further increase of…salmon exports in the Philippine market; we want to take the opportunity of the growing consumer demand for fresh-market ingredients here.”

The Asian market is showing a rebound in salmon exports to the Philippines after its government lifted restrictions after the pandemic. The country has also posted a 39-percent increase year-on-year in salmon exports versus 2022.

With that, the said market is seeing a gradual hike in demand for fresh salmonids compared with processed seafood, based on a “Seafood from Norway” May 2023 report. Norway is also looking at further utilizing the existing free-trade agreement or FTA with the Philippines, which entered into force in 2018, and includes tariff-free entry of goods from member-states including Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Iceland.

At the WOFEX, the embassy also hosted a business-matching session. It saw some 50 industry players expand networks and business opportunities for seafood.

The embassy likewise shared that some 37 million meals are produced daily from Norway’s fisheries industry. Lyster seconded that “our seafood industry has one of the most advanced technologies, and we make sure that most of our seafood is based on sustainable practices. This is why Norwegian seafood is the best in the world.” phoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan). In 2020, Japan extended anew this financial support to augment government coffers, as the Philippines rolled out its pandemicrecovery efforts.

SDCS: This ¥1.1-billion grant aid seeks to procure the PCG’s stateof-the-art Satellite Data Communication System. Once completed, it is expected to improve the coast as “excellent,” as Taiwanese technology is able to yield 3-kilogram groupers (or “lapu-lapu”), and that it is being brought southward by way of a former politician-businessman to local enterprises.

In Filipino, he revealed that this is the reality of the situation, as the said graduates are more inclined to stay in the island-state because of the attractiveness of benefits and compensation there.

The prospects of professional life post-graduation there are promising to say the least, as can be seen in the series of scholarships extended by the Taiwanese government to its Philippine counterpart. In fact, Bello shared that he has already attended three graduation ceremonies from May to June.

He said that in the last three years, some 200 foreigners tossed their mortarboards after they successfully finished their courses in the republic.

Such is the vast horizon opening up for a privileged Filipino scholar. The various educational grants, Bello imparted, are part of Taiwan’s “humanitarian relations with Philippines.” Aspirants, he said, need not be the top of their guard’s maritime-domain awareness and maritime law-enforcement capabilities, thereby contributing to the economic and social development of the Philippines, strengthening cooperation in the Sulu-Celebes Sea and its surrounding areas, as well as realizing a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Spectee: ‘Next-gen news gathering’ SPEAKING of disaster risk-reduction and management (DRRM) as well as resilience, the Embassy of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency-Phils. (Jica) formally launched “Spectee”—an artificial intelligence or AI-powered platform that seeks to provide local government units as well as media organizations with data-gathered alert system using crowd-sourced information.

Jica Phils.’ chief representative Takema Sakamoto said Spectee’s innovative nature of news gathering will soon be concept-tested through a collaboration agreement with the Department of the Interior and Lo- class or school, but those with keen interest in furthering their education. Not only are tuition fees covered, but their allowances and resources for daily living are also subsidized.

Double taxation debacle

BEYOND the educational aspect, the Meco executive is actively pitching for Taiwanese enterprises to set-up their operations in the Philippines. Aside from positively influencing the countryside, he believes that the country can be a major supplier of microchips for its neighbor up north.

In relation, he shared he was scheduled to meet with the secretary of finance, as well as leaders of Congress to discuss the matter of double taxation, which is considered a major hindrance for foreign businesses to open shop in the Philippines.

Asian countries, he said, have signed a memorandum of understanding with Taiwan’s government that eliminates the said practice—save for the Philippines. This is because the Lower House, according to him, has yet to ratify such.

cal Government. The platform, Sakamoto shared, will be activated in the country’s key cities and disaster-prone areas to assist their local government units’ DRRM response mechanisms, and to ultimately “save lives in times of disasters and crisis events.”

Meanwhile, Spectee Inc.’s Global Business Group head Negoro Satoshi disclosed that about 90 percent of Japan’s news organizations have been using the platform’s paid version “Spectee Pro” in delivering up-to-the minute reports, especially on emergencies and calamities using “cutting-edge technologies.”

“We want to help Philippine media visualize crisis situations in real time, just like in Japan,” Satoshi pointed out. “With AI-backed algorithms and human-vetted information, Spectee Pro can help in releasing timely and engaging news coverages, which we hope to bring into the local setting.”

With a report from Mike Policarpio

Bello also disclosed that Taiwan is currently in need of about 28,000 foreign workers to complement its labor force: 6,000 factory workers, 14,000 caregivers, 8,000 agricultural workers. Filipinos, he said, are almost shoo-ins for the first category, as they have “good hands [ magagaling ang mga kamay];” while Indonesians are more preferred as care professionals.

‘Threat not imminent’

SPEAKING of sourcing overseas workers, Bello allayed fears from potential workers of a possible invasion from nearby, as he sees “no imminent threat” of any such kind in the near future.

The Meco chair said that the Taiwanese and their government are well-prepared and have “contingency plans in the event of any emergencies.”

“Taiwan has 89,000 shelters that can accommodate thrice [the number of] its population of 21 million, plus overseas workers,” he claimed. “They are trained and will be informed through their cell phones on what to do [and which shelter to go] in case of an attack or invasion.” Mike

Policarpio

(Exclusive to Envoys&Expats)

BUTUAN CITY—Without birth certificates, children are more vulnerable to poverty and exclusion. They are unable to access public education, nor are they eligible to avail of the government’s social-welfare programs such as “4Ps,” which are intended to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty in the Philippines.

Through a grant from the European Union’s “Governance in Justice (GOJUST)” program, the Father Saturnino Urios University (FSUU) has been able to provide legal-aid services to the local indigenous community. Support was focused on notarizing birth certificates, so Manobo children can acquire legal identity to access their rights.

The university’s team, composed of law students and professors, also equipped villagers with knowledge about their rights under the law, and provided legal advice to tribal leaders regarding disputes between communities.

“We are grateful to FSUU, because whenever they came to our community, they helped everyone,” said Bae Avelyn Makigod, another Manobo tribal leader. “They never chose one group over another. Our children have birth certificates—thanks to them.”

Makigod added that the legal advice FSUU provided has also allowed them to reconcile both mainstream law and customary indigenous law in arbitrating disputes: “We feel empowered with the rights and laws we’ve learned as a community, and it really motivates us now more than ever to want to empower our young people.”

Meanwhile, Joy Pentaso—currently an 18-year-old Caraga State University student who is majoring in Mining Engineering—is hopeful that more of the youth in her community will be able to attend university as well. With their newly acquired birth certificates, more Manobo children may have that chance someday.

GOJUST Grant Facility

SINCE the grant facility’s launch a year ago, about 2,300 women, children, and men have been provided with legalaid services, as well as knowledge and training on their rights.

EU Delegation to the Philippines’s head of Cooperation Christoph Wagner explained the reason for their support to initiatives such as this one: “Access to justice is fundamental to building a fair, inclusive, prosperous and peaceful society. The EU has been a committed partner to the Philippines’s justice sector reform since 2006, and our engagement stems from the importance we attach to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”

The FSUU is one of GOJUST’s 12 grantee-universities that implement the “Clinical Legal Education Program,” or CLEP, of the Supreme Court as a pathway to promote access to justice for indigenous people, women, and other people in vulnerable situations. A credit-earning teaching course, its goal is to provide law students with knowledge for the application of the law, delivery of legal services, and promotion of social justice, especially to marginalized communities.

World IP day

AUGUST 9 was the “International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples,” which recognized the critical need to protect and promote IPs’ rights. The importance of having a legal identity to access rights is recognized in “Agenda 2030,” which includes “providing legal identity for all, including free birth registration by 2030,” as one of its Sustainable Development Goals’ targets.

The ultimate objective is to ensure no one is left behind in the progress of countries towards building sustainable development.

With a total grant of €19 million, or P1.1 billion over a period of four years, GOJUST supports the Philippine government’s efforts to improve access to justice for all Filipinos and thus, contribute to inclusive and sustainable socioeconomic development.

GOJUST works with the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to develop more responsive and accountable justice services in the country.

In addition, the program aims at strengthening the Commission on Human Rights to help carry out its constitutional mandate of civil and political rights protection, while enhancing human-rights promotion in the Philippines.

This component is jointly funded with the Spanish Agency for Development Cooperation or AECID, with €1 million, or P59.47 million, as additional grant.