Despite the recent maritime dispute in the West Philippine Sea, the Department of Finance (DOF) reports that the Philippines and China want closer trade and financial ties.
Specifically, the Philippino and Chinese governments would like to “revitalise” cooperation in five key areas: agricultural trade; bilateral financial cooperation through currency swap; customs; project financing; and tourism, the DOF said in a statement on Monday 5 September.
In a courtesy call to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III last week, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua also “offered Beijing’s support to the priority projects of the Duterte administration in the form of official development assistance for pipeline projects of the Departments of Public Works and Highways, Transportation, and Agriculture,” the DOF added.
Finance Undersecretary Maria Editha Z. Tan said, in agriculture “both sides exchanged views on growth potentials in the sector and shared opportunities where the countries can mutually gain benefits, such as the export of Chinese-made agricultural equipment appropriate to the Philippine setting, and the expansion of Philippine exports to China such as tropical fruits (eg banana, coconut and pineapple) and high-end marine and fishery products such as lapu-lapu (grouper), bangus, tuna, crabs and shrimps.”
The DOF and Chinese officials also wanted intensified cross-border cooperation through customs, specifically by “addressing reported trade gaps, improving the exchange of information on import and export data, and curbing the entry of illegal drugs from China to the Philippines.”
