I am a Filipino and I know I am shy with other race, but that has been overcome when I started working outside Philippines..
If you can get him working in an environment with a lots of locals, he will change his perception, shyness will disappear. Poof, gone.
He is shy because you are the one working. He doesn't know what your other folks are thinking. Filipinos love to work. Well, not all but at least most of them.