Taking the global market by the horn

(Welcome Speech on the occasion of the formal launching of the Philippine Education Society in Stockholm, June 5, 2009)

I have the honour of welcoming you all to the celebration tonight of the 111th anniversary of the Philippine independence. Eleven years ago, we proudly celebrated the 100 year commemoration of our freedom from 400 years of Spanish colonisation. During that time, the population of Filipino immigrants in Sweden was officially around 8,000. Today, the community- spread in all parts of the country has grown to more than double.

The celebration of the Philippine independence every year strenghtens the consciousness of national belongingness especially among the immigrant Filipinos, who keep the sense of "blood and belongingness" alive through associations and federations. The purposes and directions taken by every organisation vary in certain ways but the ultimate goal is to stay together and strengthen the bonds of common heritage.

Tonight, we celebrate the historic achievement of national independence but more specifically, the commitment we have taken upon ourselves to give back something to the Motherland. It is common knowledge that overseas Filipinos remit huge amount of money to the homeland, to the tune of 8 to 9 billion US dolllars per year - a considerable contribution to the country's national economy.

However, what makes tonight's celebration memorable is the formal launching of a foundation, known as the Philippine Education Society, or PES. The foundation has a specific goal - a modest one to start with and that is to grant scholarship to deserving young Filipinos in the form of language training, to give them a competitive advantage in the Swedish labour market. It is a small step towards the improvement of Filipino competence in a global market that is facing severe competition. But a good step nonetheless and PES is exactly where it should be - which is taking the challenges of a global market by the horn.

The PES has several working committees - each of which has specific targets to achieve. The most important is the fundraising and business committees, upon whose shoulders will rest the life and survival of this young foundation. We are aware of the hard times facing the global economy, the retrenchment made by national budgets to solve the financial crisis. We are also aware that the labour market is under severe pressure to keep unemployment from plummeting into depths never known before. However, despite the economic crisis and because of the economic crisis, we are raising the competence of our workforce that want to find its way to the global market. Sweden is both a national and a global market.

If the PES can - in a modest way, help equip our young workforce the language competence to improve its chances in a global labour market, then we shall have made tonight not just memorable but historic when we look back 20 or 50 years back. Despite the crisis we face, our sense of compassion to help and share resources with the less fortunate can never be taken away from each and everyone of us because of the bonds of blood and belongingness.

I thank you you all for for being with us tonight and for giving support to the new foundation.