The Philippine Online Chronicles

Ambassador Benedicto urged CCPIT Chairman Wan Jifei to organize more trades, investments and buying missions to the Philippines, citing that the Philippines has more investments in China than China does in the Philippines. Thus, Ambassador Benedicto is encouraging Chinese businessman to visit the Philippines to explore investment opportunities.

Established in 1952, CCPIT is China's foremost organization for the promotion of foreign trade in China, it comprises top-notch enterprises and organizations representing the most important economic and trade sectors in China.

This year marked the first year of the full implementation of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Chairman Wan responded positively saying that there will be new developments in the bilateral trade in support of the Aquino Administration.

The Philippines is one of the founding members of Asean. Other members are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Burma/Myanmar and Brunei.

The Chairman said that private sectors of both countries can discuss various opportunities in investment roadshows and during the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Forum (CABIS), which will be held in October 20-24 in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

In 2005, the Philippines and China set a bilateral trade target of USD30 billion. This was achieved in 2007. However, economic crisis caused a significant decrease in the exports of both countries. In 2008, total trade volume reached only USD28.5 billion. In 2009, it further went down to USD20.9 billion.

From January to April, total trade stood at USD8.25 billion. This amount represents a gain of 50 percent from a year ago.

At present, China is the third largest trading partner of the Philippines since 2007. The Philippines is actually just one of the few countries that enjoy a positive trade balance with China.

Photo: “SM的傍晚” by Jerry Luo, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved