USA: WASHINGTON: PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES FIDEL RAMOS VISIT

(10 Apr 1998) English/Nat

Philippine President Fidel Ramos wrapped up his Washington D-C visit on Friday.

He's assuring President Clinton and other top U-S officials that his country will continue along the course of economic reform in the wake of Asia's financial crisis.

For now, U-S and World Bank officials say they're confident those reforms will continue, as the Philippines prepares to elect a new president in May.

Fidel Ramos and Bill Clinton met President-to-President perhaps for the last time on Friday afternoon at the White House.

This is the Filipino leader's last scheduled state visit abroad as President.

Officials of the Ramos government say he sought to reassure President Clinton that reforms begun during his six year term will continue after he leaves office in June.

And there were assurances that Manila backs the efforts of the International Monetary Fund to ease Asia's financial woes.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I thanked President Clinton for his leadership and that of the United States in helping to mobilize the international effort to assist East Asia overcome its financial problems. We agreed that the IMF, The World Bank, and other financial institutions have important roles to play in that effort. And that their capacity to do so should be further strengthened."
SUPER CAPTION: Fidel Ramos, Philippine president.

The apparent good will had already been expressed in a session with U-S treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who praised Filipino efforts to avoid the worst of the Asian financial crisis.

Rubin says Washington and Manila seem to be on the same page when it comes to the I-M-F's Asia recovery plan.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We talked some about the view we have, and I think President Ramos shares, which is that Korea and Thailand really have taken hold of reform and made it their own. And while they obviously have enormous challenges to deal with going forward they really have made these programmes their own. And that is what, hopefully, Indonesia will do as they now enter into an agreement with the IMF, and how in important it was, not only for Indonesia, but for other countries in the region to in fact make the reform program its own and follow through on a sustained basis."
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Rubin, U.S. Treasury Secretary

A key component of the Ramos economic plan is to boost U-S investment in the Filipino economy.

And that was his message earlier on Friday to a gathering of American and Filipino business men and women.

He sought to ease concerns that a change of government in Manila might mean a reversal of policies, scaring away badly needed foreign dollars.

To that Ramos says don't worry.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I do not despair about the other presidential candidates in this regard, since none of them have come out against economic reform. I believe that if their feet were put to the fire to get them to state their position explicitly they would express substantial support for the Ramos social-economic reform agenda."
SUPER CAPTION: Fidel Ramos, Filipino President

At least for now some major U-S firms are responding to such assurances.

Ford Motor Company used the session on Friday to announce it plans to resume operations in the Philippines next year, 16 years after pulling out because of political turmoil.

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