In line with the Department of Foreign Affairs’ efforts to strengthen public diplomacy programs both in the home front and in the Foreign Service, the Philippine Embassy in Sweden conducted an Info Day on 04 September 2004 in Uppsala, a university town north of Stockholm, Sweden’s capital city.

Info Day, which was the Embassy’s response to an invitation from the Filipino community in Uppsala, benefited around fifty members of the community there, most of them married to Swedish nationals. The Filipinos were happy to hear Ambassador Victoria S. Bataclan and her team explain the various programs of the government and the description of the work being done by the Philippine Embassy, both diplomatic and consular.

The Filipinos showed great interest in the subject of dual citizenship and the Info Day participants expressed elation over the possibility of re-acquiring their Filipino citizenship. Members of the Filipino community were also very interest in entrepreneurship and medium-scale investments prospects in the Philippines, as well as the Volunteer-12 Program and other tourism promotionals of the Department of Tourism.

Last week’s Uppsala visit is the seventh dialogue to be held this year with the Filipino community in Europe’s Nordic region. Plans are now underway for a regional conference of all Filipino organizations in Helsingborg, Sweden in November 2004.