A year of milestones: Reflecting on the Australia-Philippines strategic partnership

As we close the year and look forward to the holidays, it's an opportune time to reflect on the year that has passed.

- HK YU, PSM

Dear Friends,

As Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, allow me to highlight the major achievements of our Philippines-Australia relations as Strategic Partners in 2024.

Our partnership is built on a shared vision of a peaceful, stable and prosperous region. The question remains: are we on the right path to achieving this vision? The answer is a resounding yes, and it lies in the meaningful and substantial progress we've made together.

The Philippines ranked as Australia's 20th largest two-way trading partner in 2023, with trade valued at P378 billion. While this is encouraging, there is room for growth - personally, I would love to see the Philippines become one of Australia's top 10 largest trading partners - and for the Philippines to reach its ambition to be an upper middle-income economy by 2025.

This year, two key missions underscored our commitment to this goal. The first was a transnational education mission that brought together 21 Australian academic institutions with potential partners from the Philippines. I am proud to share that this mission resulted in 15 Memorandums of Understanding fostering closer collaboration to enhance education quality, promote knowledge sharing and strengthen capacity-building efforts in the Philippines. Soon, Australian courses in construction, refrigeration and air-conditioning, mechanical engineering, IT and training and assessment will be delivered in partnership with a Philippine TVET institution.