Chinese companies are bullish on the Philippines’ economic prospects under the new administration, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian said.
Speaking at the 48th Philippine Business Conference and Expo at the Manila Hotel on Thursday, Huang took note of the government’s first 100 days, which he said has seen the Philippine business environment “continuously improving” and unemployment rate dropping to the lowest level since the outbreak of the pandemic.
“Companies from China and other countries are full of confidence in the economic prospects of the Philippines, as it has promising markets, demographic dividend and abundant natural resources,” he said in a speech forwarded by the Chinese embassy on Friday.
Huang is optimistic the two nations’ economic cooperation would further deepen under the “strategic guidance” of President Xi Jinping and President Ferdinand R. Marcos, adding Manila has been a major source of foreign investment and largest trading partner for six consecutive years.
He said the two nations also continue to explore partnership in four key priority areas, namely agriculture, infrastructure, energy and people-to-people exchange.
“They have broad prospects and will bring huge dividends to our two peoples and facilitate the continuous economic transformation of the Philippines,” he said.
On agriculture, China has offered to provide technology and equipment, and encouraged more Philippine products to enter the Chinese market, including durian, mangosteen, and frozen coconut meat.
Huang said Beijing is ready to deepen new infrastructure cooperation, including on big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
On people-to-people ties, China encouraged further exchanges in education, culture, tourism, sports, and arts after the pandemic “to inject new impetus” into the countries’ millennium-old kinship.
“Let’s walk together to forge an even closer China-Philippines partnership, economic in particular, and let business and trade create happiness and well-being for the people of China and the Philippines,” he said.
Source: Philippines News Agency