The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) will conduct a trade and investment promotion event in the Philippines early next year to form partnerships between European and local companies, an of­ficial said recently.

"Next year, we [the ECCP] will push European SMEs (small and medium enterprises) from the 28 countries of the European Union (EU) to partner with Philippine SMEs," said Henry J. Schumacher, executive vice-president of the ECCP, in a text message last week. Mr. Schumacher said the event is an ECCP initiative to engage Filipino and European firms in win-win partnerships, adding: "Knowing that SMEs cannot succeed without partners, we will match them with local SMEs.  This endeavor will commence in January 2014," he added.

While declining to name the companies that will join the event, Mr. Schumacher said the firms are engaged in automotive parts, food and beverages, energy, garments, leather goods, chemicals, plastics, toys, and furniture.

The EU is a major investment partner of the Philippines, with foreign direct Investment (FDI) stock of €7.6 billion in 2011, about 28% of total FDI stock in the Philippines. This is according to the Delegation of the EU to the Philippines' fact file 2012. The EU's FDI stock from Philippine investors, on the other hand, was about €1.3 billion in the EU, as of 2011.

Business World, 19 Nov 2013