UK-Southeast Asia Tech Week 2025

 

Asia tech week 2025

UK-Southeast Asia Tech Week 2025 is the UK’s flagship annual event on science, innovation and technology in Southeast Asia. This year’s event will run from Monday 24 March to Friday 28 March 2025 in the Philippines (Manila) and Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City).

This year, the UK is taking a delegation of cutting-edge UK AI and data companies to meet with stakeholders and potential partners in Southeast Asia. The companies represent the UK’s tech prowess – we are home to a $1 trillion tech sector with over 150 unicorns.

UK-Southeast Tech Week 2024 was a resounding success, with 150 bespoke business meetings organised, several of which resulted in commercial partnerships for UK companies. This is the third annual Southeast Asia Tech Week. The 2024 programme brought together 10 UK companies and over 500 Southeast Asian counterparts for a full week of activities.

Showcasing the best of UK AI and Data

We are excited to showcase 13 AI and data companies’ cutting-edge solutions in areas such as artificial intelligence, fintech, health tech, and more.

Our goal is to foster meaningful connections and partnerships that will drive technological advancements and economic growth in the UK and Southeast Asia.

See the programme, details of UK companies attending and how to register CLICK HERE

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Great British Festival 2024 (19-20 October 2024) Manila

Great British Festival 2024

  • THE British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (BCCP) announced the return of the Great British Festival; following its great success in its return last 2023 since its hiatus in 2019 due to the pandemic–in partnership with the British Embassy Manila and the British Council
  • Celebrates UK-Philippine Friendship Day on 20 October 2024
  • A total of 38 UK Companies and over 50,000 attendees joined the event in 2023
  • GBF 2023 Activities: Radical Sportscars F1 simulators, Bike show by Triumph Motorcycles, Bathbomb making by Lush, Samples and selling of One World Butchers, Union Jack Tavern, Quorn, The Borough Pizza Pub, Face-painting and Caricature making
  • GBF 2024 aims to host a much-larger event with more British companies to join

For further information contact BCCP at info@britcham.org.ph 

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UK – Philippines Trade Data (2nd August 2024)

UK - Philippines Trade Data

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Diplomatic Reception on the Terrace of the House of Lords

 

 

Gabriella Quimson Vice Chairman  Philippine British Business Council(PBBC)  and His Excellency Ambassador Locsin arriving the House of Lords.

Joseph Miro Chairman of Philippine British Business Council(PBBC) was also present at a Diplomatic Reception on the Terrace of the House of Lords to hear a speech given by the Rt Hon Lord Howell of Guilford.

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PBBC 30 years Anniversary

 

PBBC Members from left to right: Former British Ambassador to the Philippines Paul Dimond, David H. Bill, Rowena Romulo, Dr. Gabriella Tuason Quimson, Chairman Joseph Miro, Melissa Dizon, representatives from the UK’s Department for Business and Trade Priya Soni and John Williams, and Alistair M. Fulton, taken at the Philippine Embassy in London during their May 2024 meeting.

As the Philippine-British Business Council (PBBC) moves towards our 30th anniversary, under our new London Chairman Joseph Miro the background for the further development of bilateral trade and direct investment opportunities for both countries has never been stronger. The value of UK exports to the Philippines in the four quarters to the end of Q3 2023 was £1.3 billion (+16%), with imports of £1.7 billion (+22%). Services contributed about 40% of the former. UK outward direct investment to the Philippines in 2021 reached £449 million. In recent years, cases of inward direct investment have also grown.

In 2024, we have welcomed among others as members of the PBBC London Dr Gabriella Tuason Quimson and Mr Stephen Philips. Dr Quimson is a governance and anti-corruption specialist. Her father was Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St James’s in the 1980s. She has long experience in the UK and holds both Filipino and British citizenships, dividing her time between the two countries. Mr Philips was appointed Senior Adviser at BDO Unibank in January 2024, in a long career focused on cross-border trade, investment and finance in Asia. Before his appointment as Chief Executive of the China-Britain Business Council in 2006, he had been International Trade Director of UK Trade and Investment in the British Government.

As a business-led apolitical body, the PBBC works closely with both Governments’ trade and investment Departments, with much non-financial support from the Philippine Embassy in London and the British Embassy and the British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines in Manila. Individual PBBC members (all volunteers) have cumulative experience of trading conditions and contacts of well over 100 years. Unlike other surviving Business Councils, the PBBC itself has long adopted the policy of focus on those sectors offering the more obvious opportunities. These have included IT, agribusiness, energy and retail and we are currently aligning our focus with sectors identified by both Governments.

We offer a free service of advice in the UK to bona fide companies new to the market and are happy to hear from British firms interested in the Philippine market, whether diversifying from other ASEAN markets or completely new to the region, whether they wish to export products or services, find joint partners in the Philippines or invest there directly for longer-term market share. We are equally happy to hear from Philippine companies seeking partners in the UK or looking for direct investment opportunities.

 

All contacts should be directed to info@philippinebritish.com

 

Philippine-British Business Council

London

3 June 2024

 

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Jan 25

Philippine Star, London Eye

The British Ambassador to the Philippines is a man of many talents! He has a weekly column in the Philippine Star, London Eye featuring stories and opinions on the Philippines and the UK.philstar logo

The Philippine Star is a daily English-language broadsheet newspaper based in Manila in the Philippines. It has the most subscribers of any newspaper in the Philippines and serves as one of the country’s newspapers of record. Owned and published by PhilSTAR Daily, Inc, it was founded on July 28, 1986 by veteran journalists Max Soliven, Betty Go-Belmonte and Art Borjal in the wake of the EDSA People Power Revolution. The Philippine STAR has an established circulation in Hong Kong and in Saudi Arabia.

The Philippine Star is the most read broadsheet in the Philippine capital of Metro Manila, with a Monday-to-Saturday readership of 47.4 percent.

The London Eye provides features on a wide range of topics, all connected with the work of an Ambassador and the strong business relationship between Britain and the Philippines.

Recent articles by Stephen Lillie include the following titles: 

The G8 — why it matters globally

New Year’s resolutions

2012: Remembering the past, focusing on the future

International relations and what I’m here to do

Building smarter cities

More than a slogan

Less violence and more women leaders

Demystifying the UK visa service

The leadership challenge

A thoughtful All Saints Day

The end of the beginning…

A world built on trade

 

To access these the Philippine Star, London Eye articles and features, please follow the link  http://www.philstar.com/author/Stephen%20Lillie/LONDON%20EYE.

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Jan 22

UK Minister Addresses the Makati Business Club

“Philippines and UK can be powerful partners for prosperity”

Makati Business Club 11 December 2012 – “It is clear that future prosperity (in the Philippines) will be based on partnerships,” said Hugo Swire, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom. Addressing members of the Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, British Chamber of Commerce, and the Philippine-British Business Council. Swire also said that these days are exciting times for the continued partnership of the Philippines and the UK and that both nations are taking steps to further cement diplomatic and economic ties.makati

Earlier in the day, Mr. Swire had a dialogue with President Benigno Aquino III to tackle areas of cooperation. He also reported that a joint plan of action had been signed with Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, as well as a new air services agreement with Transportation and Communications Secretary Emilio Abaya, which he hopes would further expand trade and tourism.

In his keynote, Mr. Swire emphasized that the United Kingdom stands as one of the Philippines’ key partners in the goal of mutual prosperity. He said that British ICT specialists have been assisting in the expansion of the Philippine Stock Exchange’s fiber optic network, experts have been sharing their experience in Public-Private Partnerships, and that the UK has played a key role in the crafting of the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement as part of the International Contact Group.

Recognizing the limitations of governments and the crucial role of the private sector in globalized trade, Swire said that “international trade and investment is not just the best route to development; history tells us it is the only one.” Thus, in working towards mutual prosperity he invited the local business community to explore partnerships with British companies, highlighting the United Kingdom’s competitive advantage of a strong legal system.

“We as governments can only do so much. Ultimately, it is business that will drive growth,” he said.

 

Editor’s note: The Makati Business Club is the foremost Club of senior business executives in the Philippines. The Makati Business Club supports the growth of the Philippines economy and transparency within all aspects of government. The Makati Business Club meets regularly in Manila and holds events of particular interest to the Philippines and international business community.

 

Report by the Makati Business Club.

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Jan 18

New Passenger Terminal At International Airport

The Philippine government is seeking companies interested to pre-qualify and bid for the International Airport New Passenger Terminal Project located at the second largest airport in the Philippines. The response deadline is 21/02/2013.cheap flights

According to UKTI, UK companies are invited to pre-qualify and bid to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the new passenger development project. 

The scope of the project includes:

  • ·         Construction of a new passenger terminal to handle 10 million passengers a year, along with all related infrastructure and facilities
  • ·         Construction of an apron for the new passenger terminal
  • ·         Renovation and expansion of the existing terminal along with all related infrastructure and facilities
  • ·         Installation of all the required equipment and other facilities
  • ·         Installation of the required IT and other equipment
  • ·         Operation and maintenance of both passenger terminals

You can register your interest with the UKTI Manila team for further information and how they can help you participate in the project.

According to the Manila based Philippine Daily Inquirer Newspaper, the government is planning to break ground on a new passenger terminal specifically for budget carriers at the Clark Freeport in Pampanga this year to cope with the rising number of passengers flying out of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA). Cheap flights to Clark airport provide increasing competition to cheap flights to Manila.

The new budget terminal is expected to take three years to complete and will be able to handle about 10 million passengers a year. This will make Clark the second largest airport in the country, next to Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

“At present, our terminal capacity is very limited. Our current passenger terminal is being expanded to serve 2.5 million passengers a year,” Clark International Airport Corp. president Victor Luciano said in an interview.

The new budget terminal will be an entirely different structure from the existing passenger terminal, although they will be linked. Budget carriers offer cheap flights internationally to and from Clark.

The current DMIA’s expansion project, which would cost about P360 million and is up for completion next year, would more than double the airport’s current capacity of about 1 million passengers a year and could seriously dent the number of cheap flights to Manila.

DMIA is expected to serve 750,000 passengers by the end of this year. By next year, Luciano said the number was seen to breach 1 million.

“AirAsia alone is expecting to have five million passengers out of Clark in the next four years,” Luciano said.

AirAsia Inc., the local unit of Malaysia’s AirAsia Berhad, has yet to start operations but it plans to fly to several domestic and regional destinations, including several points in Japan, out of DMIA.

The new terminal, which will be a separate project from the planned overall development of Clark as a premiere international gateway, may be included in the government’s list of public-private partnership (PPP) projects.

Luciano said funding for the new terminal might come from the national budget.

Other airlines that fly out of Clark are local carriers Cebu Pacific, Southeast Asian Airlines (SEAir) and AirPhil Express; South Korean companies’ Jin Air and Asiana Airlines, and Singapore’s Tiger Airways.

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific has apparently also expressed interest in setting up a hub in Clark, which is a more convenient airport than Manila for millions of Filipinos living in Northern and Central Luzon. Clark is to the north of Manila and already offers some competition to cheap flights to Manila.

For cheap flights, hotels and tourist spots in the Philippines information, please see relevant pages

 

 

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Jan 15

Philippines ends discrimination against imported spirits

Great news for the UK Drinks Industry. The introduction of a WTO-compliant regime on alcohol and tobacco taxes will end discrimination against imported spirits that was a concern and financial handicap to many UK manufacturers. Wider benefits for the Philippine economy and health sector. This represents a further sign that President continues to push his economic reform prioritiesdrinks spirits.

On 20 December 2012, President Aquino signed in to law a new regime covering increased the so-called “Sin Taxes”. The previous measures date from 2005 and led to a WTO ruling in 21 December 2011 that the Philippines regime discriminated against imported alcohol and tobacco products. The Philippines was given until March 2013 to pass new legislation.All parties will breathe a sigh of relief, or perhaps raise a glass of something suitable.

The major UK interest was in the spirits sector where companies wanted to end the discrimination. Despite the WTO ruling, the legislative process was complex with strong protectionist and political forces at play .  The focus was initially almost exclusively about impacts on the domestic tobacco sector, and the original ruling was quickly lost sight of, with the House of Representatives adopting new, WTO non-compliant, legislation.

The result of the new legislation is that approximately £500 million (2/3rds from tobacco) will be generated in new tax revenues, ear-marked for healthcare related spending. The IMF has welcomed the broadening of the tax base and investment in the health sector.

The competitiveness of British drinks exporters in the market has thus been increased in line with WTO requirements. The bulk of the UK’s imports of spirits will see a reduction in tariffs, while the price of low-end domestic products will go up. A small percentage of the most expensive British brands will see a modest increase (caused by an ad valorem element in the new tax structure). However, these products are not marketed on price.

The “sin tax” bill is important for the Philippines. It will further enhance fiscal stability while strengthening a health sector that is in need of much development. It is a further sign of positive economic reform implemented by president Aquino.

 

 

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