On the morning of July 29, Assistant Minister of Commerce Ren Hongbin and Undersecretary of Finance of the Philippines Mark Dennis Joven co-chaired a video conference on China-Philippines trade and economic consultations. The two sides exchanged in-depth opinions and reached broad consensus on jointly promoting cooperation on infrastructure and public well-being. The meeting was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Commerce, the China International Development Cooperation Agency, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Chinese Embassy to the Philippines, and representatives from the Department of Finance, the National Economic Development Authority, the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Transportation and the Bases Conversion Development Agency on the Philippine side.

Assistant Minister Ren said that under the joint guidance and promotion of President Xi Jinping and President Duterte, China-Philippines relations have turned around and made solid progress. The two countries have deepened political mutual trust, expanded trade and economic cooperation, and yielded fruitful results in Belt & Road cooperation. Remarkable outcomes have been achieved on cooperation in such areas as infrastructure, industrial parks, telecommunications and energy, delivering broad benefit to local people. Since the beginning of 2020, despite the pandemic, China-Philippines trade and investment cooperation has developed against the trend and even grown faster in the first half of this year, fully demonstrating the strong resilience and huge potential of the bilateral trade and economic relations.

Assistant Minister Ren said that China has embarked on the new journey to fully build a modern socialist country. We are moving faster to foster the new development paradigm, promote higher level of opening-up, which will bring new opportunities to China-Philippines trade and economic cooperation. MOFCOM is willing to work closely with the Department of Finance and other relevant departments of the Philippine side, to earnestly implement the important consensus by the two heads of state, strengthen alignment between our development strategies, map out trade and economic cooperation at a high level, carry out ongoing projects with high quality, promote key cooperation projects with high efficiency, tackle the pandemic challenges with high standards, and push for early implementation and outcomes of relevant key projects.

Undersecretary Joven thanked the Chinese government for supporting the economic development of the Philippines and providing assistance to its combat against COVID-19 and expressed condolence for the floods that struck the central part of China. Undersecretary Joven said that the improved trade and economic cooperation since 2016 couldn’t be achieved without the joint efforts of the two sides, which highlights the two countries’ friendship and partnership. The infrastructure cooperation in areas like transportation, water conservancy and telecommunications has been productive, which has supported the economic recovery of the Philippines during the pandemic. The Philippines is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China, optimize and accelerate the procedures of relevant projects, and jointly bring China-Philippines trade and economic cooperation to a new height.

Representatives of the two sides also had in-depth discussions on pushing forward with relevant cooperation projects.

(All information published on this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only.)