FORMER Senator Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Pacquiao is planning to tap the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or TESDA to train qualified Filipino workers for possible employment in the multi-billion dollar cosmetics manufacturing industry in Korea, mainly headquartered in the Incheon Free Economic Zone.

This was after Pacquiao decided to be an investor bridging business relations between the Philippines and Korea.

Pacquiao envisioned gradually expanding job prospects for Filipinos in other Korean business sectors while creating the same opportunities for Koreans willing to work in the Philippines.

As per the most recent numbers posted by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, Filipinos living in South Korea are estimated at 70,000, up by around 70% from the previous data gathered.

Korean nationals living in the Philippines, on the other hand, are estimated at more than 43,000 individuals.

Pacquiao recently flew to Incheon, South Korea along with longtime ally, former Ilocos governor Luis Singson, and Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella to explore investment opportunities in the Land of the Morning Calm.

Among key investment opportunities being eyed by Pacquiao’s group is the manpower exchange in the lucrative market of Korean cosmetic product manufacturing, which currently has a steady consumer foothold in the Philippines.

The former senator and Singson also met with leading manufacturers of Korean electric vehicles to explore the possibility of building affordable green vehicles under the current transport modernization program of the government.

“This will help our environment long-term in reducing deadly carbon emissions from the transport sector, and our brothers coping with the cost of the present modernization program,” Pacquiao stated.