Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said the Philippines intends to continue building strong economic ties with Hong Kong as it plays the “super-connector” role in the trade relationship between the Philippines and mainland China.
“We intend to continue building strong economic ties with Hong Kong through discussions in our Joint Economic Committee,” Pascual said during the inaugural opening of the Hong Kong ASEAN Summit 2022 held on Thursday.
“We recognize Hong Kong’s unique role as a super-connector in the trade relationship between the Philippines and Mainland China,” the Trade chief added.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)’s August 2022 data, Philippine exports value to China amounted to $839.18 million or 13 percent while Philippine exports to Hong Kong amounted to $729.34 million or 11.4 percent share of the country’s total exports.
In a speech at the 48th Philippine Business Conference & Expo organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Ambassador Huang Xilian of the People’s Republic of China to the Philippines said that based on President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr.’s policy vision, China and the Philippines are exploring cooperation in four key areas, namely agriculture, infrastructure, energy and people-to-people exchange.
In the field of agriculture, Huang Xilian said the Philippines has “advantages” in tropical agriculture and China has “rich experience” in agricultural science and technology.
With this, the envoy noted that China can provide technology and equipment for agricultural development of the Philippines.
“We can focus on the Philippine-Sino Center for Agricultural Technology (PhilSCAT) Phase IV to help the Philippines increase agricultural production and enhance resilience to climate change. We encourage more Philippine agricultural products, including durian, mangosteen and frozen coconut meat, to enter the Chinese market,” Huang Xilian said three weeks ago.
Meanwhile, in the field of infrastructure, the ambassador said China and the Philippines have reached agreements and been moving forward with nearly 40 government-to-government cooperation projects over the past six years. Huang Xilian said China is ready to “synergize” the Belt and Road Initiative and the Build Better More program and continue to support the Philippines in building roads, bridges, railways and water conservancy facilities.
As for the field of energy, Huang Xilian said China has established the world’s largest carbon emissions trading market and clean power generation system. For the Philippines’s part, he said it has abundant reserves of thermal, wind and other renewable energy resources.
He also noted that China and the Philippines can cooperate in the field of electric vehicles as China, he noted, has become the world’s “largest producer” of new energy vehicles, reaching 2.29 million units in 2021, accounting for 57.4 percent of the global figure. Meanwhile, he said, the Philippines has just enacted the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act. With this, Huang Xilian stressed, “cooperation in this field is highly expected on both sides.”
The ambassador also highlighted that in 2021, bilateral trade between the two countries reached $82.05 billion. Huang Xilian also noted that the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan jointly account for 32.9 percent of Philippine exports.