Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III met this week with outgoing Russian Ambassador Igor Khovaev to discuss various areas of economic cooperation between their two countries.

In his farewell courtesy call to Secretary Dominguez last Tuesday, Ambassador Khovaev discussed a possible cooperation agreement between the Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Federal Customs Service of Russia.

Citing Russia’s efficient value-added tax (VAT) collection structure, Secretary Dominguez, in turn, asked the Ambassador for Russia’s assistance in helping the Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) set up a similar system.

Ambassador Khovaev said that Russia has shared its VAT collection technology with other countries and would assist the BIR in its effort to improve its system.

Secretary Dominguez and Ambassador Khovaev also briefly discussed a possible agreement on energy cooperation to help boost the Philippines’ power generation capacity.

During the meeting, Ambassador Khovaev also mentioned the possibility of producing and distributing in the Philippines the vaccine developed by Russia.

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