WHEREAS, the President of the Republic of the Philippines has declared diplomacy for development as the central thrust of the country ™s foreign policy;

WHEREAS, in pursuit of this declaration, the Department of Foreign Affairs has directed its Foreign Service Posts to place new focus on the efforts to secure external resources necessary for the development of the Philippines through economic and commercial representation;

WHEREAS, such economic and commercial representation involves a broad range of activities, such as the promotion of trade in goods and services, investments and tourism; the protection of worker ™s welfare; representations in trade policy; negotiations for official development assistance and bilateral debt; the facilitation of technology transfer and overseas employment; and economic information;

WHEREAS, such economic and commercial representation requires the cooperation of the concerned government departments and agencies;

WHEREAS, the representatives of the various government departments and agencies posted abroad and involved in said economic and commercial representation should act together as a one country-team; and

WHEREAS, the principles governing economic and commercial representation enunciated above apply as well to the politico-security and social sectors of development diplomacy.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V. RAMOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby direct the adoption of the country-team approach in the conduct of development diplomacy, as follows:

SECTION 1. (a) All officers, representatives and personnel of the Philippine government posted abroad, including but not limited to Trade Commissioners, Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) attaches, and trade, information, labor, military and cultural attaches, shall, on a per country basis, act as one country-team with a mission under the leadership of the Ambassador, who shall act as team leader.

(b) In host countries where there are consulates, such consulates shall also constitute part of the country-team under the leadership of the Ambassador.

(c) In the implementation of the country-team approach, visiting Philippine congressional delegations shall be provided full support and information.

SECTION 2. (a) Each country-team shall define its mission which shall be consistent with the policies declared herein, and shall prepare annually a work programme containing the particular targets of results, the specific activities to achieve the same, and members of the team who shall implement them.

(b) The work programme shall be divided sectorally into the economic sector work programme, the politico-security work programme, and the social sector work programme.

SECTION 3. (a) A Cabinet level support group selected from the existing Cabinet clusters and to be known as the Development Diplomacy Committee shall be established to provide direction, guidance and support in the formulation and implementation of the work programmes. The Committee shall be co-chaired by one representative each from the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry. The Committee shall establish sub-committee at senior official level to monitor the implementation of the work programmes.

(b) Representatives from other government departments and agencies, and/or from the business sector, media, fraternal, and veterans organizations may also be invited to participate in the Committee or sub-committees.

DONE in the City of Manila this 29th day of March, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Three.


By the President:
(Sgd.) ANTONIO T. CARPIO
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel