New PROC ambassador commits to work on speedy launch of ‘Build, Build, Build’ projects

December 29, 2019

Newly-appointed Chinese Ambassador to Manila Huang Xilian has committed to institutionalize regular meetings between the Philippines and China to thresh out issues involving the Duterte administration’s big-ticket infrastructure and development projects that are being implemented with funding support from China. 

Huang made this commitment in response to the proposal of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III to hold regular dialogues between high-level officials of the Philippines and China to address such concerns. 

In his recent courtesy visit to Dominguez, Beijing’s new ambassador also reiterated China's commitment to further enhance its bilateral relations with the Philippines and heighten cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

“It would be very helpful if we have a regular meetings regarding these projects. Our suggestion has always been to meet once every three or four months,” Dominguez said. 

Huang agreed with Dominguez, and said he would “work very hard” to ensure that projects under the "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure modernization program that are being implemented in cooperation with China would be launched “as soon as possible.” 

“We will try to make this (regular meetings) happen as soon as possible. My suggestion is we need to institutionalize that kind of mechanism. Every three months to take place, every quarter,” Huang said. 

He said when he was assigned several years ago to Pakistan, he made a similar suggestion to hold periodic meetings every two months between top officials of their countries to cement their bilateral relations.  

Huang, who replaced Ambassador Zhao Jianhua as China’s ambassador to the Philippines, presented his credentials to President Duterte last Dec. 4. 

According to Huang, he was informed by his staff at the Chinese Embassy that 10 projects in the Philippines “are being completed” in cooperation with China. 

“We hope all these projects will bring real tangible benefits to our peoples,” he said. 

The two officials also discussed ways of improving people-to-people an cultural exchanges between the two countries, particularly in the fields of sports, music and entertainment.

During the meeting, Huang cited the key role played by Dominguez in promoting understanding between the Philippines and China, and  described the finance secretary as among the “major architects of cooperation” between the two countries. 

Dominguez, however, said that he is only a member of the economic team--with President Rodrigo Duterte at the helm--that moved towards improving the Philippines’ relations with China over the past three years.

“We would like to build on that understanding between (Chinese) President Xi Jinping and President Rodrigo Duterte. We want to make sure that the way forward is smooth and mutually beneficial for both sides,”Dominguez said. 

Huang said China attaches “great importance to the implementation of the consensus (on cooperation) reached between our leaders.” DMS