The Philippine Online Chronicles

President Benigno Aquino III is set to forge at least six agreements with China during his state visit to the country from August 30 to September 3.

One of the said agreements is expected to draw USD60 billion in investments for the Philipines over the next five years, covering various infrastructure projects through public-private partnership (PPP) in the mining, energy, information, and tourism sectors, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

On the USD60 billion dollar deal, DFA Assistant Secretary Cristina Ortega noted that “we always have targets and we won't have this target kung hindi magiging posible. We still work hard but I think it could be done.”

Meanwhile, China's ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao said that Chinese officials and businessmen expressed interest in the PPP program, which is pegged at various development projects in the national and local level. He added that the “two governments will also hope to strengthen tourism and people-to-people exchanges."

“We are looking forward to concrete projects the Filipinos would like to have Chinese assistance with. China has now developed a very sophisticated knowledge on the operation and management of construction and infrastructure, which will benefit the infrastructure development in the Philippines,” Liu stated.

Aquino is also set to attend business forums in Beijing and Shanghai, and meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, and Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress chair Wu Bangguo.

“We hope such business forums wil serve as a great platform and opportunity for the business leaders of the two countries to understand each other, and further cooperation and potential in economic ties will be tapped,” the Chinese ambassador said.

Ortega said that the agreements to be tackled include the Joint Statement on the South China Sea, Philippines-China Five-Year Development Program for the Trade and Economic Cooperation, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the PCOO and State Council Information Office on Friendly Exchanges, MOU on Sports Cooperation, Implementing Program on the MOU on Tourism and Exchange of Letters on the Excutive Program of the Philippines-China Cultural Agreement.

Ortega added that China is “open” to the proposed negotiation of the North Luzon Railways Corporation rehabilitation project, adding that the latter “recognizes that this is a good project.”

Joint exploration of Spratlys

Liu also said that the Chinese government, “is willing to negotiate with the Philippines and other claimant countries for joint exploration activities in the Spratlys” which he said China had been putting forward since 1985. He added that joint exploration “is the best way for the claimant-countries to have [an] opportunity of cooperation and [staying away] from any kind of conflict.”

The Chinese ambassador mentioned that the two leaders Aquino and Hu will be discussing the territorial dispute during the visit as “we have to reach consensus. We need to have further dialogue and consultations on how to go about it.”

“You know, saying in a general way that we agree to disagree but we will keep our lines of communication. We will keep on talking and hopefully this state visit would improve or raise our bilateral erlations with China on a higher level,” Ortega noted.

Ortega explained, “An agreement regarding territorial or maritime disputes is not very easy to have. Hindi ‘yun mangyayari, maraming claimants, as you already know, and we are pushing for the multilateral approach. Since there are many claimants in the South China Sea and because this is a problem of the region then the answer would be multilateral or a regional."