The government is seeking China’s support for 40 infrastructure projects in the Philippines, including the $3-billion South Line of the North-South Railway from Manila to Legaspi City.
The Finance Department said it submitted a list of 40 “large and small” infrastructure projects for the approval of the government of China during the visit of the Duterte administration’s economic managers to Beijing.
The infrastructure projects were presented to China for possible loan financing and assistance in conducting feasibility studies, with further discussions on the details of the proposals to take place in Manila next month.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the meeting of the high-level Philippine team with officials of China’s Commerce Ministry was a “productive first step towards achieving the desire of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping in further reinforcing ties between the two countries.”
Of the 40 projects, 15 are being proposed for loan financing while another 25 were submitted for feasibility study support.
Aside from Dominguez, the Philippine delegation included Secretaries Benjamin Diokno of the Budget Department, Arthur Tugade of the Transportation Department, Mark Villar of the Public Works Department and Ernesto Pernia of the National Economic and Development Authority.
“It was a very positive and very productive meeting,” Dominguez said in an interview in Beijing with members of the Chinese media.
“My expectation is that the projects that we have discussed would be implemented very quickly and that it would benefit both [the[ people [of China and the Philippines],” he said.
Three of the large-scale projects submitted for Chinese loan financing are meant to raise the productivity of small farmers, improve transportation and logistics services in underserved areas of Luzon and ensure a steady water supply to Metro Manila.
These three projects, with a combined total of $3.4 billion, are the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project in the provinces of Cagayan and Kalinga with an estimated total project cost of $53.6 million; the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project in Quezon, $374.03 million; and the South Line of the North-South Railway running from Manila to Legaspi City in Bicol, $3.01 billion.
Dominguez said the other projects on the list were relatively small in scale and would be easier to implement, such as the construction of bridges across the Pasig River to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila.
Dominguez said the assistance offered by China to the Philippines was among the concrete results of the president’s foreign policy rebalancing towards accelerated integration with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its major Asian trading partners.
He said that amid global uncertainty over a possible overhaul of US trade policies under the new presidency of Donald Trump, it was a “very smart” move by President Duterte to recalibrate the Philippines’ foreign policy early on and reorient the economy toward greater integration with its Asian neighbors.
Dominguez said the 40 projects discussed during the meeting aimed to help realize the President’s primary goal of reducing poverty.