Join us for a 'Doing Business in the Philippines' breakfast discussion with Joona Selin, executive director of NordCham Philippines, as he shares lessons learned and best practices from more than 70 market entry and business development engagements with Nordic companies in the Philippine market. And with Eugenia Victorino (SEB) who will give us an insight on Philippines' economic outlook.

The Philippine becoming more and more robust and has experienced high growth fueled by a growing middle class, favourable demographics, and large infrastructure projects. Sectors like circular economy, renewable energy, smart cities, healthcare, and ICT provide exciting business opportunities for Nordic companies to tap. The Philippines is among the fastest-growing markets globally and is projected to continue growing between 6-7% per year in the foreseeable future.

Joona will discuss success factors and common pitfalls from business development cases, and answer questions on how to succeed in practice in the Philippines. He has been based in Manila since 2011, first serving as an analyst and Asian Development Bank liaison for Finnish trade promotion organization Finpro. Since then, Joona has led NordCham Philippines to become the largest Nordic Chamber of Commerce in Asia with 120 members and 5 full-time staff since the establishment of the organization in late 2012. Joona is also a founding partner of Asian Insiders, a network of experienced business development consultants who are based in the local markets around Asia.

Eugenia will talk about the Philippines: Resilience amidst uncertainty. Amidst the uncertainty due to the trade dispute, the Philippines is likely to be buffered by its resilient domestic demand. While growth momentum has eased ytd in 2019, its relatively low reliance on external demand will limit the pain. Even so, fundamental imbalances have eased. The government’s earlier tax reforms have opened the space for a much-needed infrastructure drive. This will further raise potential growth in the medium term.

The program:

8.00 - 8.15 am registration

8.15 - 8.55 am Doing Business in the Philippines by Joona Selin

8.55 - 9.20 am Philippines: Resilience amidst uncertainty by Eugenia Victorino

9.20 - 9.30 am Q&A

9.30 - 10.00 am networking

Registration closes on Friday, November 8 at 4 pm. The seats are limited, reserve yours. The registration is binding and non-refundable.

Mr Joona Selin, Executive Director

NordCham Philippines

Manila-based Finnish native, international experience in the trade and investment promotion and management consulting with 9 years professional experience: Market Entry Consulting, Trade and Investment Promotion, Business Development, Market research, Asian Development Bank.

Eugenia Fabon Victorino, Head of Asia Strategy

Eugenia Victorino joined SEB in August 2018 as the Head of Asia Strategy focussing on macro research in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to SEB, Eugenia spent almost 6 years as an Economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ Bank) in Singapore covering ASEAN and South Korea. She is a frequent speaker at major international media outlets like Bloomberg TV and BBC. She has also worked at ING Bank in Amsterdam focussing on country risk in Emerging Markets.