Press Release
July 10, 2009

Enrile sees better trade ties with China

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said he was that confident diplomatic and economic relations with the People's Republic of China (PROC) will further flourish with the forthcoming signing of the RP-China Joint-Action Plan for Strategic Cooperation between the two countries.

Enrile made the statement during a brief meeting with Liu Qi, a senior member of the Communist Party of China, who paid him a courtesy call Wednesday. Liu Qi, member of the political bureau of the party's central committee and secretary of the Beijing party committee, was in Manila for a two-day official visit. He also met with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Speaker Prospero Nograles, and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.

During their meeting, Enrile told Qi that he was satisfied with the final draft of the RP-China Joint-Action Plan for Strategic Cooperation, a five-year bilateral loan framework, which was initialed by senior foreign ministry officials. The loan agreement was put on hold following allegations of corruption over the botched National Broadband Network (NBN) project.

As envisioned in the loan agreement, Beijing committed $2.10 billion in infrastructure project assistance to the Philippines , but the release of the funds is pending until the two governments sign a loan agreement. The loan framework was supposed to fund Philippine government projects in agriculture, fishery, public works and infrastructure, housing, mineral resource development, and energy among others.

Enrile also assured his Chinese visitors that the Senate would make positive recommendations with the executive department to iron out unsolved matters related to the Philippine's implementation of the Chinese-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.

Reports have it that the PROC's Ministry of Commerce has complained that the Philippines have not fulfilled its commitments to reduce tariff rates on Chinese goods important to the Philippines effective last January.

For his part, Qi thanked Enrile for his role in promoting better relations between their two countries and for supporting the One-China policy. He said the "increasing mutual trust and deepening economic cooperation" between China and the Philippines would eventually benefit the peoples of the two nations.

During their exchange of pleasantries, Enrile recalled that he was a member of the Cabinet of then President Marcos when the Philippine started diplomatic relations with China and other socialist countries in 1975. At that time, the Senate President said, there was "initial distrust with China intentions" but the misgivings soon disappeared and the relations between the two countries "boomed into a vibrant and productive partnership."

Enrile also thanked the Chinese government for extending an economic stimulus package to the Philippines in the amount of $588.2 billion to counter the effects of the current economic crunch. He said Chinese businessmen are welcome to invest in the Philippines , particularly in the areas of agriculture, mining and tourism.

Liu's Manila visit is part of a goodwill trip to several Southeast Asian countries, with Manila as the second leg of Liu's four-nation visit. He first went to Cambodia and would later go to Malaysia and Indonesia . The Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency said Liu and his delegation are guests of the administration party Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats of the Philippines .

Liu, 66, is the "first-in-charge" of Beijing . As the party's top official in Beijing , he is more powerful than the mayor, a position he occupied from 1999-2003. The political bureau or politburo oversees the party, and bureau members are nominally appointed by the central committee, the highest authority in the party.

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