SECRETARY BALISACAN: I think this visit is very important, very timely and considering that we are launching our — so many strategic programs and in which China is in many of those have competitive edges ‘no.

For example, agribusiness, manufacturing, particularly nickel and EV, electronic vehicles, and energy ‘no, specifically renewable energy.

And we’re quite bliss to hear the very strong interest of the business community there. Those who attended the roundtable discussions involving captains and business leaders of industry ‘no. We’re very optimistic about the opportunities here in the country and would like to engage with us and partners with our local corporations.

We missed them, they went to Vietnam and it has become a big manufacturing base for Korea.

So that very strong interest in the Philippines now when the Chinese — top Chinese businessmen and we should seize those opportunities. Yes, very encouraging to hear those developments from China, especially the kind of support and same optimism expressed by the Chinese leaders, President Xi Jinping and the discussion with the President was very positive in the sense that it lays down the groundwork for establishing peace and stability in our region, particularly with respect to the South China Sea so that both sides, economic sides, Philippines and China, as well as the whole region will prosper.

Q: And then sir, there are the 14 bilateral agreements that were signed. Can you tell us something about that sir and then what does this mean for Philippines in general, sir?

SECRETARY BALISACAN: Well, these are memorandum of understanding, particular the one that I signed is on memorandum of understanding for engagements between Philippines and China in many areas particularly agriculture, energy, people-to-people exchanges, and tourism, among others ‘no.

So again, those areas are very much in the spirit of the Philippine Development Plan that we just completed. The strategic areas there identified in the PDP for the medium term are very much the same areas are covered by these different agreements ‘no.

So it’s a very promising again to say that PDP will be in a way supported by trust like this and we need to move fast again. As I said, move fast, seize the opportunities, get our houses into order. We have so many things to fix. But of course, it’s chicken and egg. Those things that need fixing will require a lot of investment, energy and infrastructure. But we also need investments for that create jobs, manufacturing, tourism, agribusiness, logistics. These are what the Chinese are bringing to the table.

Surely, it’s not just the impact in the short-term, like inflation. But more importantly, it’s the impact in the medium- to long-term when these investments will be able to create more jobs, will make our companies or industries more competitive because these come with infrastructure, R&D, better ways of doing services, supplying services.

So the productive capacity of the economy will improve, will be enhanced and the — hence the productivity of labor will increase and that’s what will in the end support continuing rises in wages and those increases in income and wages are the ones that deliver improvement in the welfare of our people.

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