By Catherine N. Pillas & Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas
Investment commitments and loans pledged by China to the Philippines have ballooned to $24 billion at the close of President Duterte’s four-day state visit to China, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said on Friday.
Lopez also announced that Beijing has lifted the import ban versus certain Philippine banana and mango exporters.
Lopez told reporters in Manila that deals signed in private-to-public and private-to-private meetings of the Philippine delegation with their Chinese counterparts include $15 billion worth of investment projects and $9 billion in credit facilities.
The multibillion-dollar support came amid the Philippines’s commitment to cooperate with China on the long-standing dispute over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
“This amount looks final. There were new joint projects in private-to-private meetings that were added,” Lopez told reporters.
The investment pledges cut across various industries, including manufacturing, agribusiness, trade finance, hotels, telecom, tourism, transportation, economic zones, industrial parks and infrastructure projects.
Included in the $15 billion worth of commitments are covered by 13 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and cooperation agreements signed on October 20 and 21. According to Lopez, the substantial capital infusion from China can lead to job generation for 2 million Filipinos in the next five years.
“The renewed friendship in this part of the world has opened huge opportunities for Philippines’s trade and investment in the China and Asean market of over 1.9 billion people across the region,” he said.
“We will maintain relations with our other partners but we would revive the stronger integration with our neighbors. We share centuries of trading, similar culture and a better understanding with our region,” Lopez continued, touching on the sudden pronouncement of the Chief Executive of breaking away from the United States on the military and economic front.
President Duterte, in a speech on late Thursday, declared his intention to “realign” to China and Russia, and even said the United States “has lost.”
Lopez commented that this does not amount to economic separation. The President, he added, only referred to “maintaining the relationship with the US, and “avoiding too much dependence on one side.”
One of the 13 agreements signed on Thursday is an MOU on the Establishment of a Joint Coastal Guard Committee on Maritime Cooperation.
China remained as the country’s biggest source of imports, with an 18.7-percent share last August. Payments were recorded at $1.2 billion, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Lopez also said Beijing has announced on Friday the lifting of the import ban. “China has lifted the suspension on six mango exporters and, for banana, 20 exporters [were] lifted.” Lopez, however, didn’t disclose the names of these exporters.
“This is a good development for the industry and we are thankful to the President and [Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol] for this accomplishment [during] the state visit to China,” Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Segfredo R. Serrano told the BusinessMirror when sought for comment.
Serrano said the DA is yet to receive the official documents from Beijing regarding the lifting of the import suspension on the fruit exporters.
Earlier, Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua conveyed to Piñol the decision of Beijing to lift the ban on Philippine bananas and pineapples during the envoy’s recent courtesy call in Manila.
According to documents from the DA, President Duterte had earlier requested China to increase its purchase of Philippine products. Aside from bananas and pineapples, China is also keen on buying locally produced mangoes, coconut, dragon fruit, crabs, shrimps, prawns, tuna and milkfish, or bangus.
“The said products are intended to be sold in major cities of China,” the DA documents read. China’s Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (ASQIQ) has suspended the accreditation of 27 exporters of Philippine bananas due to their purported failure to comply with Beijing’s standards for fruit imports.
The exporters were suspended after China destroyed a total of 37.48 metric tons (MT) of Philippine bananas valued at $33,000 in March. ASQIQ said the pest Dysmicoccus neobrevipes was supposedly detected in the shipment of 20,790 kilograms of bananas made by NKM Import/Export Inc. to Dalian Kawoo Import and Export Co. Ltd.
ASQIQ also destroyed the banana shipment of Sumifru to Shenzen Everglory Trading Co. Ltd. for supposedly containing carbendazim level, which exceeded China’s maximum residue level of 0.1 milligrams/kg.
Of the 27 exporters suspended by ASQIQ, the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) earlier said 10 have already made “corrective actions.” These exporters include Sumifru, Tagum Agricultural Development Trade Co. Inc., Stanfilco Division of Dole Philippines Inc. and Lapanday Diversified Products Corp.
The BPI said it has requested the ASQIQ to allow local exporters to resume the shipment of Philippine bananas to China.
The DA said the ASQIQ sent an inspection team to the Philippines to assess the corrective measures being implemented by local banana exporters on September 18.
In the first half of 2016, China bought 139,263.718 MT of bananas valued at $68.748 million, according to the data from the Philippine Statistics Authority. China accounted for 26 percent of the country’s total banana exports during the period.
Last year the Philippines exported a total of 447,915.102 MT of bananas to China, amounting to $157.499 million. China accounted for 24 percent of the country’s total banana exports in 2015.
Japan and China are the two top buyers of Philippine bananas.