Duterte economic team leaves for China to follow up on $15b investment pledges    

January 22, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte has sent his economic team to China to follow up on the $15 billion worth of investments Beijing pledged during the president’s state visit last October.

In a statement on Sunday, the Department of Finance said the members of the delegation to Beijing include Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia.

During their visit to Beijing on January 23 to 24, the Philippine economic team will hold separate meetings with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng, and National Development and Reform Commission chairman Xu Shaoshi. They are expected to meet also top officials of the China Investment Corp.

According to the DOF, the meetings will focus on the government-to-government projects signed between the Philippines and China; the proposed projects for financing and feasibility studies; and the chairmanship of the Philippines this year of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

They are also expected to deal on matters relating to the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Duterte administration's flagship infrastructure projects such as the Philippine National Railway South Line, the Mindanao Railway and the Subic-Clark Railway, DOF said.

In November, Chinese officials led by NDRC deputy chairman Ning Jizhe visited Manila where they discussed how to implement Beijing 's pledges during President Rodrigo Duterte's state visit to China in October.

The NDRC is China 's chief planning and strategy agency.

During Duterte's trip to Beijing, China had committed $24-billion worth of aid and investments to the Philippines, comprising of soft loans worth $9 billion and other economic deals amounting to about $15 billion.

Other members of the Philippine delegation are National Economic and Development Authority deputy director general Rolando Tungpalan, Public Works Undersecretaries Emil Sadain and Karen Jimeno,  and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president-CEO Vivencio Dizon, Finance Assistant Secretaries Ma. Edita Tan and Mark Dennis Joven, Transportation Assistant Secretaries Leah Merida Quiambao and Cesar Chavez, and Metro Manila Development Authority Assistant Secretary Julia Nebrija. Celerina Monte/ DMS