Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin M. Andanar with CCTV’s Huang Zheng Zheng. (PCOO photo)
MANILA -- The Philippines is seeking to strengthen cultural ties with its Asian peers as regional connectivity through the Belt and Road Initiative emerges.
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin M. Andanar will attend the Conference on Asian Civilizations Dialogue in Beijing, China next week, where he will discuss along with heads of state, high-level officials, and private experts, the shared future of the Asian community.
The conference will revolve around the theme of cultural, people-to-people exchanges, and mutual learning of Asian civilizations.
“This is a conference that will build relations of different countries that will be attending this, most specifically the host nation China. I see this as one of the people-to-people and cultural exchanges that China has always spearheaded, has initiated for different countries to prosper and be given the opportunity to grow together,” Andanar said in an interview with China Central Television and Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday.
He said the region is as equally relevant to economic connectivity in China’s Belt and Road Initiative -- which revives ancient trading routes by promoting infrastructure development across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Asia at the center.
“The Asian Silk Road has played a major role in the development of civilizations in the world, including the Philippines. When we shine in the world stage, it is important for us to know, to revisit each other’s civilizations. And also be familiar with the civilization that has contributed to our growth, for us to revisit the Asian Silk Road, or even the introduction of the new maritime Silk Road,” Andanar said.
“It’s not all about money. It’s also about how we can live together harmoniously, how we can synergize. It’s all about also respect, and it is also about being able to live together peacefully,” he added.
Andanar said he will impart Filipino values to the conference’s participants.
“Here in the Philippines, we value equality. We value our freedom, our liberty. We value our liberty to live the life that we want to live. We value our way of governance. The family, we value togetherness, we value respect, and we value the love, the unconditional love that we must give to each other and to our neighbors,” he said.
Andanar noted that he wanted to highlight the Philippines’ resiliency, which he described as “the ability for one person for a group of persons, for the country to bounce back whenever there’s a tragedy, that we should never give up.”
He also stressed the importance of the media’s role in promoting those values to the region.
“Media is indispensable in this case. We really need to have good media relations for us to further our relations in a manner that we are broadcasting what is good from our country, from your country. It’s a must that we cooperate in our industry in the media. It’s the fastest way to promote our own interests, to promote our cultures, traditions, our civilizations,” Andanar said. (PCOO)
