00:00 President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. was pleased to report that the backpay of the companies that were lost in Saudi Arabia in 2015 and 2016 is being processed.
00:10 Saudi Arabia is also interested in having more skilled workers in the KSA.
00:16 That's the surprise of Kenneth Paciente.
00:18 Aside from the participation of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in the ASEAN Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
00:28 he also held some private meetings with some world leaders that resulted in positive results.
00:35 The bilateral meeting of the executive board of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud was also included in this meeting,
00:42 where they discussed the strengthening of the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.
00:47 According to the President, Saudi Arabia is interested in having more skilled Filipino workers in the KSA.
00:53 They are very interested, not only in getting increased contractors, laborers, and professional skilled workers, engineers, architects,
01:11 they are looking for those because they will build a lot.
01:15 But according to the President, the system is clear because they talked to the Crown Prince that Saudi Arabia will invest in the Philippines.
01:22 The President also asked for construction of food production facilities in the Philippines,
01:27 especially since almost all of the food there is imported.
01:30 That will bring jobs to the Philippines and will also increase our food supply.
01:34 So these are the kinds of things that we have been talking about.
01:38 They also discussed the unpaid salaries of the 10,000 OFWs who lost their jobs in the KSA
01:45 when their companies were losing their jobs during 2015 and 2016.
01:50 The Saudi government is now processing the back pay of the affected OFWs.
01:55 We are already coming to the point where we are only talking about the details.
02:02 The list of the claimants has been cleaned up.
02:07 We are just waiting for the details to be worked out between the Saudi side.
02:12 Even though he was not on his schedule, the President and Crown Prince of Kuwait also had a short conversation
02:18 with Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Saba.
02:22 The Crown Prince mentioned his disapproval of the issues between the Philippines and Kuwait.
02:27 It is important to remember that Kuwait is not aware of the issue of the working visa of the OFWs
02:33 because of the Philippines' non-compliance with its labor agreement with Kuwait.
02:37 The words that he used was, "Do not listen to them. This comes from small people.
02:41 I do not agree with what they have been doing."
02:44 In fact, he said, "There is no reason for you to apologize to us."
02:53 "Do not ask us to apologize to them."
02:56 He said, "As a matter of fact, I will apologize to you," said the Crown Prince, "for what happened."
03:02 The government is also temporarily suspending the deployment of first-time household workers in Kuwait
03:08 because of the death of the OFW, Julie B. Ranara.
03:11 "I am telling our fellow citizens that just for that, it is worth it that we went on this trip
03:18 because we were able to fix the problem in Kuwait, which really hurts our minds how we will do it.
03:25 But that is one of the, shall we say, successes that we can record from this trip."
03:39 The President also gave a positive view of KSA and other Gulf countries on the Maharlika Investment Fund.
03:45 He just confirmed that the MIF is more likely to be recognized by potential investors.
03:52 "I'm confident that once we get it operationalized, once we are able to start talking in detail
04:02 with not only the investment funds but even private corporations and other governments as well,
04:08 that is precisely the role that we have envisioned for the sovereign fund, the Maharlika Fund,
04:16 and that is the direction that it has taken."
04:20 The country was able to achieve 4.26 billion US dollars in business commitments
04:26 during the President's trip to KSA.
04:29 Kenneth Paciente, for the nation.
04:32 (upbeat music)
