Anytime this year, the Japan - Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement will be finalized. The bilateral agreement is being worked out as an alternative to the multilateral agreement which is quite slow in getting materialized. This move was started after the state visit of President Arroyo to Japan in December 2003 where she signed a Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) with Japan.

These information were disclosed by a team headed by Dr. Mario Lamberte of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) during the forum at the Leyte Park Hotel last June 22, 2004.

"We want the effects to be positive", said Dr. Lamberte. "We have to look at the issues and the areas where we can position ourselves… We have so much to share -- at the right price", he stressed.

Dr. Lamberte's team is going around the country getting the concerns of the regions as inputs for the on-going negotiation between the two countries. Completed researches by various institutions with bearing to the issue are also discussed in the regional forums.

But what is in it for Region VIII?

One of the major areas that will be the focus of the agreement is agriculture. Statistics show that Japan is the Philippine's second largest market for its products. Japan is a food importer and the Philippines is Japan's largest supplier of tropical fresh fruit, shrimp and prawn. Region VIII itself has many products that are export potential, e.g. seaweeds, prawn, tuna, king crab, shellfish, lobsters, grouper, etc. The problem is, how to make these products pass through Japan's tough sanitary and phytosanitary requirements. Through this proposed partnership, we will have a better understanding of Japan's regulations. At the same time, agricultural producers and small-medium enterprises can be helped in terms of technical assistance toward making our products world-class.

Another major area of cooperation which could have a significant impact on Region VIII is tourism. There is a demographic change going on in Japan. There is an emerging "silver market" which makes the Philippines a potential retirement destination for the Japanese. But before it can happen, the prospective Japanese will surely evaluate the place they will settle in through tourist visits. It is a challenge for us to come up with a package that will attract the Japanese to settle in the region.

Thirdly, the agreement will tackle issues on labor migration such as protection of our workers and movement of Filipino professionals to Japan. There is of course the issue of brain drain. As Mr. Michael Angelo Cortez of de la Salle University, one of the resource persons during the forum, puts it, "If all the good nurses are gone, who will teach the new ones? What if we have no more nurses and we have plenty of Japanese here?"

There are pros and cons of this Free Trade Agreement. It is believed that "everybody gains from trade". The important thing is, we must be able to make the most out of this agreement. In the forthcoming preparation of the Medium-Term Regional Development Plan for Region VIII, this development must be given careful consideration.