President Obama’s visit aims to strengthen strategic relationship between US and Philippines --Palace

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 27): President Obama’s visit aims to strengthen strategic relationship between US and Philippines --Palace

The visit of President Barak Obama to the country starting Monday is aimed to strengthen strategic relations between the United States and the Republic of the Philippines, a Malacanang official said on Sunday.

Presidential Communication Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said when President Benigno S. Aquino III and President Obama meet, they will talk about bilateral relations on three major fronts.

Coloma said these will be: “Strengthening political and security cooperation; expanding trade and investments, tourism and development cooperation; and, on deepening people-to-people ties.”

According to the PCOO Secretary, the country already has strong ties with the US as there are an estimated 2.27 million Filipinos living in the States, while some 670,000 tourists from the US visited the Philippines in 2013.

In the economic development aspect, the Communications Secretary said US-RP partnership is focused on meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

He said this is through direct economic assistance and improving public infrastructure, achieving significant poverty reduction, and supporting the administration’s good governance and anti-corruption agenda.

The US is the second largest destination of Philippine exports.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=638452