General

On August 22, at the China-Philippines Cooperation Forum co-hosted by the China-ASEAN Business Council, the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee and the Philippine Embassy in China, the guests fully affirmed the development of good-neighborly and friendly relations between China and the Philippines in recent years. As well as the progress made in trade and investment cooperation in various fields, they discussed new opportunities for cooperation, and actively expressed their wishes and suggestions for enhancing international trade cooperation.

Otino, Charge d'Affaires of the Philippine Embassy in China, said that in 2021, China will be the Philippines' largest trading partner, second largest export market and largest import supplier. The Philippines' exports to China will increase by 17.53%, and its imports from China will increase by 28.42%. In 2021, the total amount of Chinese investment approved by the Philippines is US$43.53 million, and China ranks seventh among the Philippine investment countries. Currently, trade and investment opportunities between the two countries are still very broad in some important areas, such as manufacturing, infrastructure and construction, as well as food and agriculture. At the same time, cooperation in the field of digital economy and green economy is rapidly increasing between China and the Philippines and is developing exponentially. The Philippine Embassy in China hopes to work with the China-ASEAN Business Council to help international trade and investment cooperation reach new heights.

Xu Ningning, executive director of the China-ASEAN Business Council and chairman of the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, said that the meeting aims to help the two countries deepen good-neighborly and friendly relations and promote new development of international trade. Facing unfavorable factors such as the current turbulent international situation, sluggish world economic growth, and the spread of the global epidemic, China and the Philippines, which live next to each other, enhance cooperation and fully exploit the economic and trade complementarity between the two countries. A realistic option for development.

Yang Guoliang, Minister-Counselor for Economic and Commercial Affairs of the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines, said that under the leadership of the leaders of the two countries, the bilateral economic and trade cooperation has achieved fruitful results in the past six years, promoting the high-quality development of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road". In the past six years, the value of new contracts signed by China in the Philippines has nearly tripled, and the annual scale has exceeded US$10 billion. Chinese enterprises have actively participated in the construction of engineering projects in the fields of Philippine Bridges, ports, power stations, housing, and water conservancy. They have built the largest power station project and the largest photovoltaic unit under construction. In the future, it is necessary to use science and technology to enhance momentum, actively explore and deepen China-Philippines cooperation in grain crops, offshore wind power, pumped storage, digital economy, new energy mining and green metals, new energy and new energy vehicles, health and health and other fields.

Glenn Penalanda, Acting Undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, said the new Philippine government has established policies to prioritize food and agriculture, digital economy, infrastructure expansion, digitalization and renewable energy to promote recovery and sustainability Economic growth and the creation of more jobs have provided many opportunities for cooperation between the two countries. The new Philippine government has confirmed that the Philippines' participation in the RCEP is a government priority, and the DTI will continue to push for the approval of the RCEP to take effect as soon as possible.

Scientific and technological innovation is the key force to promote the construction of the "Belt and Road" and the development of RCEP member countries. Wang Jiwu, Chairman of China TusHoldings Co., Ltd., said that TusHoldings hopes to build extensive and diversified cooperative relations with the Philippine government, universities and enterprises under the guidance of scientific and technological innovation, and jointly promote scientific and technological innovation and industrial economic cooperation and development. According to the plan proposed by the Philippine government to "fully support the introduction of high-tech manufacturing, health care and other strategic industries and various emerging technologies in the eco-park", build a carrier of technological innovation, export Tus's mature technology park operation model, and link the global innovation network of Tus , cultivating and importing emerging industry technologies; sharing the school-running experience taking Tus Digital College as an example, making efforts to cultivate digital technology talents and international digital education; relying on Tus innovation carriers to strengthen cultural and economic exchanges between China and the Philippines.

Xu Ningning put forward five suggestions on enhancing economic and trade cooperation between the two countries:

First, proceeding from the overall situation, long-term and current needs, consolidate and develop the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. In politics and business communication, cooperation and mutual assistance promote development. Through people-to-people bonds, we will consolidate the foundation of good-neighborly friendship and economic cooperation between the two countries.

The second is to enhance the cooperation between the provinces and cities of the two countries, especially the friendly provinces and cities, give full play to the advantages of strong flexibility in the cooperation between the provinces and cities, and combine the economic characteristics of the provinces and cities to make the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides more detailed and solid.

The third is to jointly seize the business opportunities brought by regional economic integration and look forward to the early entry into force of the RCEP agreement in the Philippines. Regional cooperation can be jointly promoted through platforms such as the China-ASEAN Expo.

Fourth, efforts should be made to improve the business environment and enhance the international cooperation capacity of entrepreneurs of the two countries, which is an important condition for expanding the scale of trade and investment.

The fifth is to focus on promoting the industrial cooperation between the two countries, to promote the communication of industrial plans and policies of the two sides in a pragmatic manner, and to create a new industrial chain with complementary advantages, so as to drive the new development of trade and investment of enterprises in the two countries. It is necessary to actively strengthen the docking and cooperation between the industry business associations of the two countries, and implement the construction of "two countries and two parks" in an innovative and pragmatic manner.

Sun Xiao, Secretary General of the China Chamber of International Commerce, also believes that new models of industrial cooperation should be actively explored, and the construction of the "two countries and two parks" project should be strengthened to drive the in-depth development of local economic cooperation between the two countries. The local governments of the two countries should maintain close communication, conduct full research, cooperate sincerely, and make steady progress. Through the joint construction of the "two countries and two parks" project, a cross-border e-commerce center, a cold chain logistics center and a digital economy center will be built, and at the same time, the long-term development of industries such as planting, food processing, advanced manufacturing, and modern logistics will be promoted. China-Philippines international trade has added new momentum.