Philippine economy high on agenda of Xi’s visit

October 29, 2018

DAVAO CITY - The Philippine economy is high on the agenda of the coming visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in November this year, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi  said Monday.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr said Xi’s visit would be the first by a China president in 30 years and eighth by a high-ranking Chinese official since diplomatic ties were signed 43 years ago.

Wang’s visit here on Monday resulted in a discussion on several economic cooperation agreements expected to be signed during Xi's visit, the Department of Finance ( DOF) said.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III described it as a “productive dialogue” that will help to “continue expanding the mutually beneficial economic, trade and investment cooperation” between the two countries.

“We are preparing for the upcoming historic visit of President Xi and, of course, the economy is a very important field,” he said in the opening statement before the signing of the bilateral documents.

In his remarks before the start of the meeting, Wang underscored the importance of economic cooperation in strengthening bilateral relations between the Philippines and China.

Wang cited the significant growth of two-way trade between the Philippines and China as well as the rising number of Chinese investments in the Philippines, which, he said increased “by more than 500 percent” in the first six months of 2018.  Last year, the level of investment was 67 percent.

“The economic cooperation between our two countries now are in a good position,” Wang said.

Dominguez said that “China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, is now the Philippines’ biggest trading partner with total trade amounting to $44.8 billion in 2017 and $33.5 billion from January to August this year”.

The DOF said the discussions  focused on the status of the economic cooperation agreements and documents, particularly those covering Chinese funding support for the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program, expected to be signed during President Xi’s state visit to the Philippines in the third week of November.

Wang gave updates on the Chinese side on the status of the “Build, Build, Build” projects that the Philippines is undertaking in cooperation with China.

The Philippines is expected to sign at least five agreements with China during Xi’s visit.

The agreements cover loan and guarantee accords, economic and technical cooperation, support for the feasibility studies on the Philippines’ infrastructure projects, and promoting cooperation on key “Build, Build, Build” projects in Mindanao.

Dominguez said the agreements slated to be signed were all “on track.”

The bilateral documents signed after the meeting at the Marco Polo Hotel here were the Exchange of Letters for the Feasibility Study of the Davao River Bridge (Bucana) Project, which was signed by Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana; the 50 million renminbi grant for the Supply of Law Enforcement-Related Materials/ Equipment to the Philippines signed also by  Sta. Romana; and the $1 million grant assistance for the victims of typhoon Vinta in 2017, signed by Defense Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad.

The three documents were all signed by Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua on behalf of China. DMS