|
FOREIGN
Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo will map out with
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao investment strategies for
Chinese investors on Monday to be able to reach $30
billion in bilateral trade volume by 2010.
The
Department of Foreign Affairs said the three-day visit
of Romulo in Beijing, starting Sunday to run till
Tuesday, includes detailed discussions on Chinese
investments in mining, infrastructure, manufacturing,
agriculture and fisheries.
Romulo
will also seek to map out trade strategies on “reverse
investments”—Filipinos investing in
China,
according to documents from the DFA.
“There
are more investments in China coming from the
Philippines and we want to reverse that trend by having
more Chinese investments in the Philippines,” said a
department official, who requested anonymity.
Romulo
will also follow up Chinese investments on the Northrail
development project that is now in the preparatory stage
of construction, as well as the proposed South Luzon
railway project.
He will
also discuss with
China’s
new foreign minister Yang Jiechi how the
Philippines
could benefit in the agreement on trade in services
signed between member-countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China.
Romulo
will then proceed to
Pyongyang
in North Korea to intensify the Asean’s standing request
for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. He
will be in Pyongyang June 19 to 21. He will also meet
with Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun and Kim Yong-nam,
president of North Korea’s Presidium of the Supreme
People’s Assembly.
“The
peaceful resolution of the Korean peninsula nuclear
issue through decisive diplomacy and meaningful dialogue
is imperative for sustained development in the region,”
said Romulo in a statement over the weekend.
He
added: “The
Philippines,
in its capacity as Asean chairman, stands ready to
extend the necessary assistance to the Six-Party Talks
stakeholders to help ensure that the process is moved
further forward.”
The
Philippines, which is hosting the Asean Regional Forum (ARF)
early August this year, hopes that North Korea will
attend the meeting because the other parties in the
Six-Party Talks—the US, Japan, Russia, South Korea and
China—will attend the ARF, and the forum expects to push
for the resumption of the talks. |
