TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Philippines is soliciting Taiwanese investors interested in capitalizing on its fast-growing medical industry with what it is touting as its tremendous market potential.

Healthcare is one of the sectors expanding at a high pace in the Philippines, with a market scale ranked as third among ASEAN nations, after Indonesia and Thailand, said Annabelle Briones, director of the Southeast Asian country’s Industrial Technology Development Institute. She made the remark at a bilateral industrial forum on Wednesday (Nov. 3), wrote CNA.

Aging and increasingly higher disease incidence rates are driving up the demand for pharmaceuticals, but nearly 98% of active ingredients used in drugs have to be imported, as do the bulk of the country's medical equipment and supplies, the official reckoned.

Taiwan and the Philippines have inked 23 memorandums of understanding through the Taiwan-Philippines Industrial Collaboration Summit over the past four years. The collaborations have helped create 30,000 to 50,000 jobs for Filipinos with investments totaling US$1 billion, according to Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi (陳正祺).

A report released in August by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines suggested that electronic vehicles, water resources, and medical supplies are the three main areas in the Southeast Asian country with promising investment prospects for Taiwanese companies.

A pharmacy in Manila. (CNA photo)