Supreme Court E-Library
Information At Your Fingertips

June 21, 2005

The Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of the Republic of Estonia, hereinafter referred to as "the Parties";

Desirous of strengthening the friendship, understanding and the sense of snared values between the two countries;

Determined to translate these bonds into co-operation instruments in order to strengthen their relations;

Acknowledging that culture and education are vital components of development;

Further acknowledging that co-operation in culture and education strengthens inter-state relations by building up not only institutional networking but also people-to-people contacts;

Have agreed as follows:

ARTICLE I

The Parties shall encourage co-operation on the basis of reciprocity in accordance with their respective legislation.

AREAS OF CO-OPERATION

ARTICLE II

The Parties shall agree to strengthen their bilateral co-operation in the areas of education, culture, sports, mass media, and information technology.

I CO-OPERATION IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION

ARTICLE III

To foster educational co-operation, the Parties shall endeavour as much as possible to promote academic networking and exchanges between and reciprocal access to educational institution/s.

ARTICLE IV

The Parties shall promote, both in the public and private sectors, reciprocal study visits, scholarships, study and research professorships, and exchanges, and shall endeavour to provide the appropriate facilities to this end, for students, faculty and support staff, school administrators, researchers, and scientific personnel of one country seeking to study in institutions of higher education and research laboratories in the other country.

ARTICLE V

The Parties shall encourage and facilitate the exchange of periodicals and materials on general information, educational methodology, statistics and educational literature, including, where possible, information technology link-ups. .

ARTICLE VI

The Parties shall endeavour to exchange information and documentation, and shall take all necessary steps, in order to establish the comparability of qualifications giving access to higher education and higher education qualifications.

ARTICLE VII

Each Party shall encourage the study, teaching, research on, and dissemination of the languages, culture, history, as well as translation of the literature of the other country in the appropriate educational and scientific institutions. To this end, scholarships/research grants for students, researchers, specialists, and teachers shall be provided in institutions to be identified by each Party.

ARTICLE VIII

To the extent possible, each Party shall encourage the establishment of professorial chairs in such fields of study and in education institutions as may be acceptable to the participating institutions, and, if feasible, by bringing in appropriate partners.

ARTICLE IX

The Parties shall encourage reciprocal participation in educational congresses, conferences, symposia, and seminars in each other's country.

II CO-OPERATION IN THE FIELD OF CULTURE

ARTICLE X

The Parties shall endeavour to promote as much as possible, in the public and private-sectors, networking and exchanges between and reciprocal access to libraries, museums, archives, cultural establishments, and anthropological institutions.

ARTICLE XI

The Parties shall encourage and facilitate the exchange of periodicals and materials on cultural and historical studies, conservation and restoration.

ARTICLE XII

The Parties shall endeavour to encourage, both in the public and private sectors, reciprocal visits, trainings and scholarships, and research exchanges in their respective countries, and shall endeavour to provide the appropriate facilities to this end, for cultural experts, researchers, scientists and representatives of state archives, state and provincial libraries, state and provincial museums, and other cultural establishments and foundations.

ARTICLE XIII

The Parties shall likewise endeavour to make provisions to citizens of the respective countries for access to libraries, documentation centres, archives, museums, galleries and other cultural, scientific and educational institutions in the other country for purposes consistent with the present Agreement and in accordance with national legislation.

ARTICLE XIV

The Parties shall strengthen co-operation in the control, protection, recovery, conservation, and restoration of the cultural and artistic patrimony of each country, and shall facilitate reciprocal access to the other's cultural properties and patrimony, including all assets that are defined as being part of their cultural heritage, in accordance with their respective legislation.

ARTICLE XV

The Parties shall undertake measures to prevent illegal importation and transfer of rights of ownership over items of cultural heritage of each of the Parties in accordance with norms of international law and other relevant laws on intellectual property.

ARTICLE XVI

The Parties shall promote and enhance knowledge and understanding among their respective peoples, at the national and, where possible, at the local level, of the visual, musical and performing arts, literature, handicrafts and folklore, traditional artistic and cultural forms of expression, and other cultural activities of the other country in particular, by:

- the exchange of visits of performers, writers, composers, conductors, artists, private sector and public sector media practitioners and information officers, critics and art experts, and other representatives of creative professions;

- the exchange of visits of musical and performing arts groups, and of exhibitions;

- the establishment of contacts between creative associations, organisations and cultural institutions, both public and private;

- the use of information technology, in accordance with national legislation and international norms, and without prejudice to intellectual property rights.

ARTICLE XVII

The Parties shall endeavour to provide opportunities for and facilitate participation of scientists, experts, art critics, artists, students, cultural planners, private sector and public sector media practitioners and information officers from each other's country in its cultural and artistic congresses, conferences, symposia, and seminars.

ARTICLE XVIII

The Parties shall co-operate for the dissemination in each other's country of the other's literary, musical, artistic and published scientific works of authors in the fields provided for in the present Agreement

ARTICLE XIX

The Parties shall promote co-operation in the field of cinema by.

- the exchange of films;

- the organisation on a mutual basis of festivals and premieres of films produced in the other country;

- the joint production of documentary, feature and animation films;

- the establishment of contacts between cinematographers, directors and cinema workers of the two countries;

- the mutual enhancement of film archiving; and

- sharing of expertise in state of the art technologies.

ARTICLE XX

The Parties shall facilitate the exchange of cultural goods and information between both countries, paying particular attention to books, audio-visual material, with the maximum flexibility that their legislation allows. The increase in exchange of plastic arts, film and television material shall be particularly promoted through the organisation of thematic programmes, exhibitions, festivals and showings.

ARTICLE XXI

The Parties shall promote co-operation in the field of copyright, in accordance with their respective legislation, as well as with their commitments under international treaties, and they shall recognise and protect the copyrights of authors of books and other forms of publications, audio and video recordings, films, paintings and other originals exchanged, in accordance with or pursuant to this Agreement

III CO-OPERATION IN THE FIELD OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ARTICLE XXII

The Parties shall encourage and foster co-operation in the field of information technology (IT) by:

- the exchange of IT expertise through the conduct of training by IT experts and provision of research grants;

- the sharing and exchange of information and training on IT technology and interconnectivity, state-of-the-art IT equipment or solutions which the other party has great need of;

- the concerted effort on research and development, the result and ownership of which will be mutually shared;

- the sharing of studies and experiences on the establishment of public and private national network and IT infrastructure test beds, especially in the installation of local area network (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs); and

- the exchange of data on standards, especially in the areas of manpower and training, hardware/software infrastructure, and content/database and information sharing, subject to prevailing laws on Intellectual Property Rights of both Parties.

IV CO-OPERATION IN THE FIELD OF MASS MEDIA

ARTICLE XXIII

The Parties shall promote co-operation in the field of private sector and public sector media, the specific forms of which shall be determined by agreement between competent organisations of the two countries. To this end, the Parties shall facilitate the networking of news and information agencies in the two countries.

ARTICLE XXIV

The Parties shall encourage co-operation in the field of radio and television broadcasting by

- the exchange of radio and television programmes on history, culture, arts, education and vocational training, science and technology, and current events; and

- the joint production of radio and television materials on topics of mutual interest

The Parties shall promote co-operation in the field of print media by:

- the exchange of visits of accredited journalists and print media practitioners; and

- the mutual participation in fora, congresses, seminars, conferences, and symposia of accredited journalists and print media practitioners.

V CO-OPERATION IN THE FIELD OF SPORTS

ARTICLE XXVI

The Parties shall encourage co-operation in the field of sports.

VI GENERAL PROVISIONS

ARTICLE XXVII

The Parties shall promote and encourage the development of contacts and co-operation between friendship societies and associations in the fields of education, culture, sports, information technology and mass media, in their respective countries.

ARTICLE XXVIII

The Parties shall own all information gathered under this Agreement. Such information shall not be disseminated to any third Party without the consent of both Parties.

ARTICLE XXIX

To implement the Agreement, the Parties shall prepare and sign protocols for cultural and educational co-operation for periods of 4 - 5 years. These protocols shall determine specific activities and exchanges, as well as financial and other terms of their implementation.

ARTICLE XXX

The Agreement shall enter into force on the receiving date of the last notification by which the Parties have notified each other, through diplomatic channels, of the completion of their internal legal procedure.

ARTICLE XXXI

The Agreement shall remain in force for a period of five (5) years and shall continue to be in force thereafter for a similar period unless, one year before the expiry of the period, either Party notifies the other Party of its intention to terminate the Agreement. The notice of termination shall become effective one year after the other Party has received it.

In case of termination, the Parties shall take the required measures to guarantee the completion of any joint projects commenced prior to the termination.

ARTICLE XXXII

Any disputes arising out of the interpretation or application of this Agreement shall be settled amicably between the Parties, through diplomatic channels.

ARTICLE XXXIII

This Agreement may be amended and modified at any time by mutual consent of the Parties in writing, through diplomatic channels. The amendment shall enter into force in accordance with the provisions of Article XXX of this Agreement.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the duly authorised representatives of the Parties have affixed their seals thereto.

Done in Tallinn on 21 June 2005, in two original copies in English and Estonian languages, all texts being equally authentic. In case of divergence of interpretation the English text shall prevail.