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Trade Secretary Peter Favila and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were in London recently to attend the Emerging Markets Summit, where he had a meeting with several British companies who have expressed interest to invest in the Philippines, either via fresh infusions or the expansion of their existing projects. Areas of interests include mining, energy and business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors.

The companies that expressed interest in the country included mining companies Rio Tinto and Metal Exploration Plc, energy firm Bronzeoak and telecommunications company T-Mobile.

A Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) official said, “Rio Tinto expressed strong interest to come to the country and explore on opportunities especially in copper and nickel. Bronzeoak highlighted its future plans in the Philippines, on which Secretary Favila also spoke of talks with several local investors and banks who are interested to join the project.”

It would be Rio Tinto’s first business in the country should they decide to invest here. It has operations in parts of Australia, North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Southern Africa, where it produces copper, aluminum, diamonds, gold, iron, ore, energy products and industrial minerals like titanium dioxide, borates, salt and talc.

Metals Exploration, on the other hand, has already set its foot in the country via mining operations at the Runruno mines in Nueva Vizcaya. “The ongoing development of the Runruno gold-molybdenum projects was discussed, as was the status of the company’s permit application,” said Metals Explorations during the meeting with Arroyo and Favila. They have been involved in the Runruno project since 2005.

Meanwhile, T-mobile, in their meeting with Arroyo said that “the company is eyeing the Philippines to outsource not only its customer service operations, but also in exploring possibilities of outsourcing some its operations.”

For Bronzeoak, it is already present in the country via the ethanol refiner San Carlos Bio-Energy Inc. where it has a significant stake. The San Carlos Bio-Energy has an integrated facility that has cane milling plant with throughput capacity of 1,500 metric tons of sugarcane daily, as well as a co-generation power plant that can produce around 8 megawatts of power. It also houses a distillery plant that can generate some 30 million liters of anhydrous ethanol a year.