Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has given credit to the foresight of both President Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping for the warm and productive bilateral ties as well as the improving prospects for mutually beneficial business partnerships between the Philippines and China.

Speaking before a visiting delegation of Chinese businessmen, Dominguez said the Philippines offers them with a “rich field” of investment opportunities under a leadership that is committed to creating an environment more conducive to sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

Dominguez said that under the leadership of President Duterte, the Philippine government has adopted a more forward-looking policy towards China that recognizes “the great synergy that will be generated by the closer partnership between these two countries.”

“We look forward to more partnerships at ground level, at the level of individual enterprises, and shared wealth creation. The opportunities that unite us are far greater than the issues where we might have some differences,” Dominguez said during the Philippines-China Trade and Investment Forum held Monday at the Conrad Manila Hotel in Pasay City.

In 2018, China was the Philippines’ biggest trading partner with a total trade of US$ 52 billion, which is 15 percent higher than the 2017 level. Foreign direct investments (FDIs) from China to the Philippines reached US$634 million in 2018, a dramatic 185 percent increase from the previous year.

“We look forward to even closer cooperation as we build the best possible future for our two peoples,” Dominguez said. “Much credit will have to be given to the foresight of both President Xi Jinping and President Rodrigo Duterte.”

The forum was attended by around 100 business leaders from the industrial city of Chongqing located in southwest China.

Also at the forum were Chen Min’er, Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC); Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua; Guo Yezhou, Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee; Wu Cunrong, Executive Vice Mayor of the Chongqing Municipal People’s Government; and Wang Fu, Secretary General of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, and Representatives Wes Gatchalian and Lord Allan Jay Velasco were also at the forum.

Dominguez said the visit of this large delegation of Chongqing senior officials and businessmen underscores the growing people-to-people relations and improving prospecting for “mutually rewarding business partnerships” between the Philippines and China.

During the event, Dominguez also congratulated the People’s Republic of China on its 70th founding anniversary and expressed his admiration for its past and present leadership for accomplishing its goal of virtually eliminating poverty among its people.

“No other country, at the size and scale of China, has ever achieved this in human history,” Dominguez said.

Under President Xi’s leadership, China has moved ahead with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which Dominguez described as the “single largest enterprise in human history” that will “reshape the global economy for the new century” and bring Asian economies closer together through enhanced trade linkages and seamless connections for investments.

Dominguez said the Philippines fully supports BRI, aware of its vast economic potentials for all countries in the region and outside it.

“Enhanced trade will encourage more efficient investment flows. Improved connectivity will enhance the inclusiveness of our growth patterns. We have everything to gain from this,” he said.

Dominguez said the Philippines also has its own BRI in the form of the “Build, Build, Build” program, which is the centerpiece of President Duterte’s economic strategy of making economic growth sustainable and inclusive for all law-abiding Filipinos.

“We are relying on this infrastructure modernization program to induce internally generated growth that will enable us to expand despite a challenging global environment brought about by protectionist policies in the West,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez said the economies of the two countries complement each other in many ways, foremost of which is the fact that the Philippines, with its young, well-educated, cosmopolitan workforce can become an important “demographic partner” of China.

He cited China’s key support for the Philippines’ infrastructure modernization through its official development assistance, loans and grants that will help build dams, bridges and railways under the “Build, Build, Build” program.

The Philippines, Dominguez said, has also benefited from the renminbi-denominated “Panda” bonds it has floated in the Chinese market that had been widely supported by Chinese investors and the Bank of China.

Dominguez said the Duterte administration has fully prepared for the large costs involved in implementing “Build, Build, Build” by passing key tax reform measures and improving tax administration. These measures have yielded the revenues necessary to support “Build, Build, Build.”

But even with its massive infrastructure investments that have already breached 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the government has maintained its fiscal discipline, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 41.9 percent in 2018, which is much lower than the 74.4 percent in the previous decade, Dominguez noted.

The Philippines today also enjoys record levels of foreign exchange reserves totaling close to US$86 billion, which Dominguez said is the highest level in the country’s history, complemented by the highest credit rating it has received so far—the investment grade of “BBB Plus” from Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

“All of these provide us enough headroom to stimulate the economy by reducing both policy rates and bank reserve requirements. In the coming period, as the cost of money falls, we expect lending to increase. Our banking system has sufficient liquidity to meet the financing needs of new businesses,” Dominguez said.

He said the government has introduced a series of reforms to attract more FDIs, among them, the passage of the Ease of Doing Business Law; the implementation of a national ID system; opening of the rice market to private traders; and application of digital solutions to cut red tape, improve the delivery of frontline services, and reform tax administration and payment systems.

President Duterte’s goal, Dominguez said, is to bring down poverty incidence to only 14 percent before the end of his term through the implementation of these reforms and other game-changing initiatives on his watch.

As a result, the unemployment rate is at the lowest it has been in 40 years and the poverty incidence of 27.6 percent in the first half of 2015 has now dropped to 21 percent in the first half of 2018, Dominguez said.

“I encourage you to look closely and find the opportunities that might suit your business interests. We hope you will partner with us and help achieve the ultimate goal of freeing our people from underdevelopment,” Dominguez told the Chongqing delegation.

-oOo-