Ambassador Christiaan Tanghe,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen;

It is great pleasure for me to host this luncheon for Ambassador Christiaan Tanghe who is ending his tour of duty as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Belgium to the Philippines. The Department of Foreign Affairs and the diplomatic and business communities in Manila have shared three wonderful years with Ambassador Tanghe, and I am sure that we will all miss him.

I wish to congratulate and express our appreciation to Ambassador Tanghe for doing a marvelous job as the Belgian Ambassador to the Philippines and contributing significantly to the enhancement of the relations between the Philippines and Belgium.

Ambassador Tanghe actively promoted development cooperation between the two countries.  With total Belgian contribution estimated at about € 25 million, the Belgian Integrated Agrarian Reform Support Program (BIARSP) is one of the most important agricultural reform programs in the Philippines involving rural infrastructure, education, agricultural productivity, and public health and with the ultimate objective of increasing incomes of the people in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Belgium has consistently been one of the top five trading partners of the Philippines among the European countries and I am sure that it will continue to be so particularly with the successful visits of Belgian Trade Missions in 2002 and 2004, which would not have been possible without Ambassador Tanghe’s initiative.  A total of fifty-nine Belgian companies from Brussels and the Walloon region of Belgium participated in these trade missions.

The Belgian presence in modern-day Manila has been conspicuously marked by the Light Rail Transit 1 which transports more than 400,000 passengers a day. That the LRT will continue to serve the commuting public in the future as well as it has done in the past two decades has been guaranteed by the Php 428  million soft loan extended by Belgium during the watch of Ambassador Tanghe for the rehabilitation and modernization of the LRT.

Ambassador Tanghe’s accomplishments in the field of culture and arts certainly also deserve mentioning, for the exchanges between our artists have never been more active. Filipinos enjoyed the visits of several Belgian artists including the Belgian Boys Choir and Belgians marveled at our own Loboc Choir. Cinematic talents of Belgium and the Philippines were showcased in the film festivals in Brussels and Manila. Under his leadership, the Belgian Embassy maintained an active program of cultural exhibits and lectures.

On this note, may I now invite everyone to join me in a toast to the good health and success of Ambassador Tanghe and to the close friendship and cooperation between the Philippines and Belgium. END