Dec

14

China and the Philippines have had trade relations ever since the 9th century or during China’s Sung Dynasty– Chinese medicine for Philippine handicrafts, silk for pearls.

The archipelago has been very profitable to the Chinese.

Every Philippine urban center of commerce rose on the foundation of Chinese families and enterprises. In business and blood, the fates of these two Asian nations are intertwined, through the worse, towards the better.


Though China and the Philippines still continue trading medicine, handicrafts, textiles and pearls– there is a brand new commodity that the Chinese is looking towards the archipelago to acquire.

Education.

With China’s current economic troubles and bad publicity over substandard goods, higher-level education has never been more important especially with emphasis on English proficiency for better understanding with global partners from the United States and United Kingdom. Students in China have seen the value of these for their future career advancement and employment opportunities.

To answer this need for better-value education, the Philippines sent a delegation to participate to the 5th China Education Expo in Shanghai last October 25 to 26 which was preceded by a exploratory mission to Wuhan on the 21st and 22nd.

The participation, led by the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), in cooperation with the Philippine Consulate in Shanghai and the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC)–Shanghai, brought seven leading educational institutions and one partner city to China.

During the two-day expo, the participation’s partner city- Quezon City, “Home to the Best Universities and the ICT Capital of the Philippines” – garnered more than 200 trade inquiries about the top universities in Quezon City as well as courses related to Business Management, IT, MBA and other post graduate degrees.

On the delegation’s business mission to Wuhan, University of St. Louis- Tuguegarao (USL) was able to enter into an understanding for possible exchange and educational cooperation with Jiliang University of Science and Technology and Zhejiang Vocational College of Commerce.

Wuhan is one of the key scientific and educational bases in China which boasts of the 3rd biggest scientific educational center in China. Wuhan initiated some high-level and diversified international exchange and cooperation programs to promote the global capabilities of their institution.

The signing of Memorandum of Understanding between University of St. Louis and the Chinese educational institutions focus on faculty and student exchange and possible collaboration on research.
In support to these developments, the Philippines has made itself more accessible to the Chinese mainland.

Things have come a long way since Chinese traders travelled to the Philippine islands on their ocean-crossing junks. Now there are three additional flights to Cebu City from Shanghai.

Charter flights between the Hangzhou capital of China’s Zhejiang province to the Philippine capital of Manila charter will soon be offered regularly. Charters which include 2-3 flights a week for Hangzhou-Manila, Hangzhou-Cebu, and Shanghai to Kalibo are now in negotiations to accommodate the increase in traffic during the Chinese New Year.”

This is no wonder that the Philippines has landed on the top 8 spot of the most searched travel destinations among Shanghai online users of China’s leading search engine (and the world’s third largest search engine) Baidu, according to a research done by Darwin Marketing.

The dragon has been a national symbol of China, an emblem of its culture, its beliefs, its past and future.

The dragon’s pearl represents the dragon’s status above all creatures; it represents balance between the elements–yin and yang. The dragon’s pearl also represents the dragon’s knowledge, its intelligence.

In regards to China’s future prosperity and status among the nations, the Philippines could very well be the Dragon Country’s pearl.

Outsourcing Solutions, Inc. – your outsourcing partner!

 

References:

  1. “RP universities in ties with Chinese counterparts.” 14 December 2008. The Manila Bulletin. Accessed 14 December 2008. Link here
  2. Abadilla, Emmie. “RP is No. 8 most searched spot in China search engine.” 14 December 2008. The Manila Bulletin. Accessed 14 December 2008. Link here

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recommended Providers

Recommended Articles

Ask the Expert


Please click here or send an email to jeff@outsourcing.ph with your questions about outsourcing.