BVMW DELEGATION IN THE PHILIPPINES TO EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SMES

The German Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (BVMW e.V.) delegation, led by its Managing Director Andreas Jahn,   visited  Manila from 14-15 July for meetings with Philippine agencies and business groups.  

The delegation paid a courtesy call on DTI Secretary Maria Cristina A. Roque on 14 July 2025 to brief her on the objectives of the mission and for a discussion on opportunities for Philippine and German SMEs.  Mr. Jahn conveyed an invitation to Sec. Roque to speak at BVMW’s  SME Future Day scheduled to take place in April 2026. 

The delegation also received briefings from the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DepDev) on the country’s economic performance and outlook and with the Department of Migrant Workers on  Philippine labor deployment policies. They also met officials of the IT Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP). 

The said meetings were arranged through the assistance of the Philippine Embassy in Berlin and the Philippine Trade and Investment Center-Berlin.  

The delegation proceeded to Cebu for the second leg of the mission.

EMBASSY CELEBRATES THE 127TH ANNIVERSARY OF PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE AND NATIONHOOD

2 JULY 2025. The Philippine Embassy in Berlin held a reception for the diplomatic corps and partner institutions and companies on 2 July 2025 to celebrate the 127th Anniversary of Philippine Independence and Nationhood.  

Held at the Waldorf Astoria Berlin, the reception was graced by Director General for Asia and the Pacific in the Federal Foreign Office of Germany Frank Hartmann and former Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to Germany Delia D. Albert.  

In her opening remarks, Ambassador Natividad hailed the strong bilateral relations between the Philippines and Germany that span 70 years and marked in recent years by high-level engagements in the areas of regional security, climate action, renewable energy, trade, investment, agriculture, labor mobility, science and technology, culture and tourism.

Ambassador Natividad shared that the Philippines will take center stage in the 2025 Frankfurter Buchmesse in October 2025 as Guest of Honor Country.   “The Philippine Pavillion in Frankfurt will be filled with our stories as a nation and as a people under the theme The Imagination Peoples the Air.   We invite you to Frankfurt to listen to our stories,  and they are as many, as beautiful, and as diverse as our 7,641 islands,”  she said.

For his part, Director General Hartmann congratulated the Philippines on the 127th anniversary of its independence and nationhood.  He said that the decades-long “close and vibrant partnership” between the Philippines and Germany is also a cause for celebration.  He described the year 2025 as “a very active political year” in the bilateral relations between both countries.

Guests from the diplomatic corps, German government, business, NGOs and the academia attended the celebration and sampled chicken adobo, buchi and refreshing cocktails with Filipino rum and ube liqueur.  END

PARTICIPANTS TO COURSE ON PUBLIC POLICY AND PUBLIC SECTOR LEADERSHIP VISIT EMBASSY

16 June 2025 – Ambassador Irene Susan Natividad welcomed Director Ma. Antoniette P. Aristoza of the Plenary Affairs Bureau of the Senate of the Philippines and twenty-five (25) participants to an International Learning Course (ILC) on Public Policy and Public Sector Leadership during their visit to the Embassy. 

The course was developed by the Development Academy of the Philippines’ (DAP) and The Hertie School in Berlin and forms part of the Emerging Leaders’ Track of the Capability Building on Innovative Leadership for Legislative Staff (CBILLS) Program.   It seeks to expose the participants to Germany’s best practices and strategies in evidence-based policy-making, legislation, governance, and leadership;  identify new trends and competencies required from legislative staff/officers and public policy managers; and compare the different approaches and challenges of the legislative process between the Philippines and Germany.

Director Gilbert Lumantao of the DAP’s Policy Research Office outlined for the Ambassador the CBILLS-ILC’s objectives,  while Minister Mary Luck Hicarte presented an overview of PH-DE bilateral relations to the participants.     

Commemorative notes issued for the 70th anniversary of Philippine-German relations were given to the participants as a souvenir of their visit to Berlin.