Bangkok, Thailand
November 18, 2022

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, convened in a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 29th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand.

The meeting between the two Leaders focused on various areas of mutual cooperation including investments, energy and the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) working in the Arab State.

After the bilateral meeting, President Marcos Jr. and Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Susan Ople announced via the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) Facebook page that the Saudi Arabian government vowed to shoulder the unpaid salaries of around 10,000 OFWs who worked for the country’s construction companies that declared bankruptcy in 2015 and 2016.

The Chief Executive added that Saudi Arabia set aside a total of two billion Saudi riyals to help the affected OFWs apart from establishing an insurance system for them.

This is President Marcos Jr.’s first meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister. The latter is an invited guest in the APEC Leaders’ Informal Dialogue wherein the Economic Leaders tackled various ways of promoting sustainable trade and investment amid the ongoing economic challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.

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