Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said President Rodrigo Duterte’s foreign policy rebalancing toward Asia resulted in the improvement of the Philippines’ economic relations with its neighbors in the region, such as economic powerhouse China.
Dominguez said concessional financing and investment pledges made by China after its top leaders met with President Duterte in 2016 progressed into agreements, several of them to help fund the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure modernization program and its war against illegal drugs.
China was also among the first countries to pledge assistance in helping rebuild Marawi City in Mindanao after President Duterte declared it free of ISIS-inspired extremists in October.
“The unprecedented pledges of assistance from China that President Duterte had generated for the Philippines in 2017 make up the initial investment dividend from his prescient foreign-policy rebalancing toward Asia,” Dominguez said in a statement.
China is now among the Philippines’ closest allies, with the country delivering swiftly on its respective pledges of assistance to help fund the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ and Marawi reconstruction programs, Dominguez said.
Premier Li Keqiang, who was among the world leaders who took part in the 31st Asean summit and its related meetings hosted by President Duterte in November in Manila, extended his stay here for an official visit, becoming the first Chinese premier in 10 years to visit the Philippines, after Premier Wen Jiabao who attended the Second East Asia Summit in Cebu in 2007.
President Duterte said during Premier Li’s visit that mutual trust and confidence-building led to increased interaction on many levels of the two governments. He said practical cooperation in many areas was bringing in an early harvest of tangible benefits.
According to the International Finance Group of the Department of Finance, China so far committed $7.34 billion in soft loans and grants to the Philippines for the implementation of 10 big-ticket projects, the construction of two bridges in Metro Manila and two drug rehabilitation facilities in Mindanao and aid to rehabilitate Marawi City.
President Duterte in his four-day state visit to China in October 2016 raised $24 billion in investment and aid pledges. Of this amount, $9 billion were grants and other forms of assistance.
