High-level delegation off to China to negotiate details of $15-B deals

MANILA, Philippines – The Duterte administration is sending a high-level delegation to China to meet with key Chinese officials this week to hammer out details of the $15-billion economic deals and investment commitments which Manila and Beijing sealed during President Duterte’s state visit to China in October last year.

Leading the delegation is Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, along with Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar and Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia. The meetings will run from Jan. 23 to 24.

The Philippine officials are due to hold separate meetings with China Vice Premier Wang Yang, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng, and National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) chairman Xu Shaoshi while in Beijing.

They also plan to meet top officials of the China Investment Corp. (CIC).

Essentially, the DOF said meetings would cover discussions on the government-to-government projects signed between the Philippines and China; the proposed projects for financing and feasibility studies; the chairmanship of the Philippines this year of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); and matters concerning the AIIB and the Philippines’ flagship infrastructure projects such as the PNR South Line, the Mindanao Railway and the Subic-Clark Railway. 

Also part of the delegation are NEDA deputy director general Rolando Tungpalan, DPWH undersecretaries Emil Sadain and Karen Jimeno,  and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president-CEO Vivencio Dizon.

Also joining the delegation are DOF Assistant Secretaries Ma. Edita Tan and Mark Dennis Joven, DOTr Assistant Secretaries Leah Merida Quiambao and Cesar Chavez, and assistant secretary Julia Nebrija of the Metro Manila Development Authority, according to the finance department.

For their part, NDRC deputy chairman Ning Jizhe led a Beijing delegation to the Philippines last November to discuss the investment commitments and to lay the ground work to allow both sides to push swiftly in implementing the projects covered by these pledges.

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

During Duterte’s state visit to China, Dominguez signed three agreements on behalf of the Philippines.

These include the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation, which provides Manila with a RMB yuan 100 million grant to implement projects for “anti-illegal drugs and law enforcement security cooperation,” and the MOU supporting the conduct of feasibility studies for major projects, in which China will provide financing support to the Philippines in undertaking feasibility studies for big-ticket projects in infrastructure, agriculture and rural development.

Dominguez also signed a third MOU which is on financing cooperation with the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim).

This would allow the Philippines to tap China Exim funds for its major projects through the usual approval processes.

These agreements were among the $24 billion-worth of aid and investment pledges that China had committed to the Philippines comprising soft loans worth $9 billion and other economic deals amounting to about $15 billion.