BEIJING—Two key members of President Duterte’s economic team said today that President Duterte’s directive to his Cabinet to move “strongly and swiftly” towards the Philippines’ economic integration with its fellow-members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) along with China, Japan and South Korea, opens the country to a lucrative market of 1.8 billion people across the region.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, who are part of the Philippine delegation that accompanied the President on his four-day state visit to China, said that while the Duterte administration will maintain its good relations with Western economies, it will now push for “stronger integration” with its neighbors in the region.

“The President just gave a very important speech (during his state visit to China). The Cabinet will move strongly and swiftly towards regional economic integration. This is why the President prioritized foreign trips to ASEAN and Asia,” Dominguez and Pernia said in a joint statement.

“As a result, the Philippines has now opened its opportunities for trade and investment to a market of 1.8 billion people across the region. ASEAN economies have expressed interest in integration. China has committed to open its capital markets,” they added.

The Philippines, as one of ASEAN’s founding members, has committed to join the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), an economic bloc designed to create a single market and production base in the region.

ASEAN groups the Philippines with Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

In their joint statement, Dominguez and Pernia said the Philippines’ regional integration would expand to include China, Japan and South Korea.

“We will maintain relations with the West but we desire stronger integration with our neighbors. We share the culture and a better understanding with our region,” Dominguez and Pernia said.

The AEC will allow for the free movement of goods, services, skilled labor, and investment among the 10 ASEAN member-nations and to facilitate the freer flow of capital.

Unlike the European Union (EU), the AEC aims for economic integration without a monetary union or political integration.

Dominguez and Pernia said the regional integration envisioned by the Duterte administration “is similar to what has been done in the EU, NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in North America and Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur) in South America.”

“The Philippines is integrating with ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea,” said Dominguez and Pernia.

They pointed out that Asian economic integration is “long overdue” compared to the other regional trade blocs earlier forged by other economies across the globe.

Dominguez told senators earlier that the President is not changing Philippine foreign policy but merely “recalibrating” it, following Mr. Duterte’s pronouncements that the Philippines would build new alliances with China and Russia.

He explained at a recent Senate hearing that the President’s recalibration of Philippine foreign policy would open the country to markets other than the traditional ones in the West.

“The President has indicated to us that he’d like to strengthen and exploit opportunities…in countries other than our traditional trading partners,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez also told the foreign media in his recent official trip to Washington DC, USA that the President plans to tap Chinese investments to fund the administration’s ambitious infrastructure program.

The Duterte administration plans to ramp up spending on infrastructure up to 5.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) next year, and maintain or even increase this in the succeeding years to sustain the country’s high growth and create jobs outside Mega Manila, in line with its 10-point socioeconomic agenda on inclusive growth.

During the President’s state visit to China, Dominguez signed three key agreements with top Chinese officials.

In simple rites held at the Great Hall of the People here, Dominguez and Sun Ping, Vice President of the Export-Import Bank of China (China EXIM) signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Financing Cooperation, which signifies the intent of the Bank to provide funding for Philippine projects in infrastructure, agriculture and energy, among other priority sectors, through concessional loans and other preferential financing facilities.

A separate MOU signed by Dominguez and Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng provides Manila with financing support from Beijing in conducting feasibility studies for the Philippine government’s major projects in infrastructure, agriculture and rural development, among other priority areas.

Dominguez and Gao also signed the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation, which states that “in accordance with the needs of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines, the Government of the People’s Republic of China agrees to provide the Government of the Philippines with a grant of RMB Yuan 100,000,000 (one hundred million Renminbi Yuan), which shall be disbursed to implement the projects for anti-illegal drugs and law enforcement security cooperation.”