The President and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper held bilateral talks at the Intercontinental Yokohama Grand Hotel at the sidelines of the 18th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting here on Saturday morning.

Communications Strategy Secretary Ricky Carandang said the President thanked Prime Minister Harper for the fair treatment given to the Filipino community in Canada.

There is an ever increasing people-to-people links between Canada and the Philippines, their third largest source of immigrants with over 300,000 Filipinos making vital contributions to Canada. “The President thanked the Prime Minister and the government of Canada for the good treatment of the Filipinos living there. They have laws to protect migrant workers including the Filipinos,” Carandang said.

Aside from the welfare of Filipinos, Carandang said the President also invited the Canadian ministers present to inform their private sector including Canadian companies involved in mining and infrastructure in the Philippines to attend the Philippines’ public-private partnership conference slated November 18 to 19.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Harrper congratulated the President on his election victory.

Carandang said the Prime Minister also requested the President’s help in reducing the human trafficking problem in their country wherein many people from Asia and other parts of the world are smuggled using different transshipment points.

Chino Leyco, Manila Bulletin