By Alec Go
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. arrived on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 5, from his three-day state visit to China where he announced that the Philippines has secured $22.8-B worth of investment pledges.
In his arrival speech delivered at the Villamor Air Base, Marcos said his visit to China was productive, with Chinese companies presenting investment plans to the Philippines worth USD 22.8 billion and trade purchase intentions of close to USD 2.1 billion.
“When realized, these investments will support our country’s economic recovery efforts and create more jobs for Filipinos within our country,” he said.
“We will be releasing a more detailed breakdown of those numbers, which will be included in the final report of the delegation,” he added.
Aside from roundtable meetings with Chinese business executives on the agriculture, renewable energy, and electronic vehicle industries, Marcos also had bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and National People’s Congress Chairperson Li Zhanshu.
“President Xi and I had a comprehensive discussion on the overall state of bilateral relations between the Philippines and China. Our conversation covered important facets of our relations, particularly agriculture, energy, infrastructure, trade and investment, science and technology, and, of course, people-to-people ties,” he said.
Marcos said he and Xi had an “in-depth and frank” discussions on the West Philippine Sea.
“We took note of our growing maturity of this bilateral relationship – this bilateral relationship which now allows both sides to manage differences on the West Philippine Sea, so as to not allow it to hinder the rest of our fruitful engagements and multi-faceted cooperation,” he said.
“We renewed our commitment to strengthen bilateral cooperation as close neighbors in the Asia Pacific Region. The visit offered us an opportunity to exchange views on important issues that affect regional and global peace, stability, and development,” he added.
On January 4, during Marcos’ second day in China, Malacañang said the Philippines and China signed 14 bilateral agreements that will strengthen ties in agriculture, education, energy, environment, infrastructure, science and technology, trade, and people-to-people exchanges.
