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BY NORMAN D. CORDON
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Special Correspondent for 2017 ASEAN Summit
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte wants to see investors from India pouring capital into producing more affordable medicines in the Philippines.
Duterte made this known during his bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.
“We want to discuss trade relations further and especially, the most important one is that…and I’m happy that you’re here because we can’t find the medicines, and you have it and it is [in] India [where] people [can] really afford to buy it,” Duterte told Modi.
There may be Indian investors interested in manufacturing cheap medicines in the Philippines, Duterte said.
India – considered one of the largest producers of generic medicines in the world – was known as “the pharmacy of the third world.”
“We would [be] happy to see you building an investment that would include the medicines,” the Philippine president said.
“These are the things that would interest us really,” said Duterte. “There’s just a need for us to talk further, and I might just send my secretary of Finance and Agriculture secretary, and the Department of Trade [and Industry] and the Department of Health.”
“I’m more interested really in the medicines because we are a poor country,” he added. “And if there is an investor that could be interested, an Indian citizen of yours who would want to venture in our place, we would be happy.”
Duterte also commended the Indian-made Mahindra cars that the Philippine National Police was using.
“It’s the one that’s being used and there are a lot of them…almost 1,000, and it’s good and it’s being used now,” he said. “They (police) are outside, they are guarding this place.”
Modi thanked Duterte for the hospitality extended to him and his delegation, noting that it was his first time to visit the Philippines and have a bilateral meeting with the Filipino leader.
He also thanked the Philippine president for including the music of Indian artist Rama Hari in the 31st ASEAN Summit opening ceremony.
“With this particular program, you have touched the hearts of the Indian people and you have won their hearts,” Modi said./PN
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