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PGMA's Speech during a Business
Forum |
| Thank you very much, Secretary Favila for your introduction, Secretary of
Trade and Industry. Honorable Li, Secretary of the Communist Party of China in Chengdu; Honorable Waang, Vice Governor of the Sichuan Provincial People's Government; Honorable Ge Honglin, Mayor of the Chengdu Municipal People's Government; Honorable Bo Yang, Counselor of the Asian Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; our members of the Philippine delegation, aside from Secretary Favila, we have here: Secretary Romulo, Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Secretary Yap, Secretary of Agriculture; others members of the very high-powered government and business delegation of the Philippines; members of the Sichuan and Chengdu business community; ladies and gentlemen. Good morning to all of you. Thank you for your warm welcome. Open dialogue and trust between peoples and nations have never been more important than in today's world. We welcome this opportunity to communicate with the people of Chengdu and Sichuan in order to help forge stronger ties. China is the fastest growing developing country in the world, also the most populous. China has unleashed the human potential of your vast citizenry by effective use of technology, science and engineering. Your remarkable rise reflects the promise and challenge of the world in which we live. We see your dramatic growth lifting millions out of poverty and shaping the nation squarely onto the world stage as a new global power. From the Philippine point of view, we welcome the surge in economic growth and development as a healthy development for our nation. The internal market demand and domestic consumption of china has a direct and positive impact on the Philippines in terms of job creation and balance of trade. Because of your consumption and your market demand, growth in Asia is transitioning from being export-driven to domestically-driven. And we hope it continues. As China becomes a true political and economic giant, your obligations to your neighbors also increase, separate from your obligations to your own citizens. China has an important and strategic role to play in the economic development and security situation of the Asian region. We are hopeful that china will continue to pursue your foreign policy based on maintaining world peace and promoting common development. We also look towards china to lead in promoting good neighborly relations and regional cooperation. In the Philippines, as I said, we benefit from the growth of China. China is now one of our top three trading partners. Our relationship with china is among the most important ties of our country. It can only lift up our nation as it lifts up other nations, too. Philippines-China relations are at an all-time high, as President Hu Jintao called it, "A Golden Age." Philippine relations with China are now more confident, mature, comprehensive, punctuated with substantial and important projects aimed at deepening exchanges in many areas including economics, trade and investment, and even defense. Our relations are based on mutual respect. Major landmarks of our relations include the Philippines-China comprehensive economic cooperation partnership framework, also the Northrail from Manila to my home province of Pampanga, the national broadband network projects in the Philippines, and continued regular exchanges of high-level visits between our two countries. We are happy with china financing our Northrail and our national broadband network because transport and communication infrastructure development is crucial to our economic development plan for our nation. We have visited many parts of China. We come here very frequently. And now we are honored to visit Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, China's biggest province, the heartland of China and gateway to Western China. When I was young, I used to hear of Chengdu from those who are visiting Tibet. This was the gateway to Tibet. But now Chengdu is known for itself. It has attracted investment from many leading multinational firms. You're successful in consumer electronics, steel, alcohol, animal feeds, hydropower, metallurgy, machinery, information technology, tourism, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, to name a few. And the country's largest color TV producer Changhong Electric sells a lot of its products to the Philippines. So today, we have high-powered Filipino businessmen joining us because here in Chengdu, Filipino businessmen have joined the others in appreciating what Chengdu has to offer. Shoemart, the icon of Philippine retailing, has opened an 80 million-dollar mall in Chengdu, its third mall in China. One of our leading banks, Metro Bank, is hopefully establishing a presence in Chengdu, also the third in China. And Oishi, represented here by one of our special envoy, Mr. Carlos Chan is also contemplating an investment here in Chengdu. Going in the other direction, the Sichuan new hope group has invested so far 11 million dollars in the Philippines to build feed factories, both have been coming in during my administration. And I'm happy to tell the president of new hope that the two places where you have put your feedmill are both in my home province of Pampanga. And the seven million dollars next coming up will be in San Simon, which is also in my home province of Pampanga. In fact, my great grandfather comes from that town. But we all are here, the businessmen of the Philippines and the officials of the Philippines, to cooperate in various aspects -- trade, investment, tourism and people-to-people exchanges. We welcome the signing of the sister-province agreement between Sichuan and Cebu, which is one of our main tourist destinations in the Philippines. Last year, one thousand tourists from Chengdu visited the Philippines. We invite more tourists from Chengdu. As an archipelago with beautiful beaches, the Philippines presents an attractive destination to the people of landlocked Chengdu and Sichuan, particularly during the summer and winter months. And we look forward to the day when Sichuan and Chengdu will substantially raise the level of investments in the Philippines. The Philippines is the perfect regional partner to aid as a logistics partner. We have heard that Chengdu is a logistics center of central and western China. Third country logistics services are important for china because you need to source and import many of your raw materials and intermediate inputs from other countries. The Philippines could help enhance the competitiveness of Chinese inland industries by doing procurement and pre-processing of the low value-to-weight product components in the Philippines. The Philippines could provide logistics services to Chengdu in terms of forwarding networks and procedures, supply chain services, and even local warehousing. It is especially positioned to be a supplier of logistics services to china because of its strategic position in ASEAN; because of its high-value skilled labor well-versed in international logistics; because of its existing economic zones; because of its ready supply of raw materials and intermediate products especially semi-conductors, agricultural products and mineral resources. In fact, the Philippines is already a major semi-conductor supplier to china. Chengdu is also an important market for fresh fruit such as the famous Philippine mangoes but also bananas, pineapples, young coconut. Also for processed food such as dried nuts, dried fruits, I mean, nuts, fruit juices and puree, coconut products, canned fruits and frozen seafood like abalone. And so to push the bilateral economic and trade relations to a higher stage, we hope that both the Philippines and Chengdu and Sichuan should push to further deepen existing cooperation between our two economies. We envision a day when the businessmen from Chengdu, when the Sichuanese and the Filipinos are trading more with each other, investing more in each other, and visiting each other more. The Philippines offers one of the best values for china investors in Southeast Asia. As I said earlier, we offer a strategic location in a fast growing region. Our workforce is well-educated, productive, English- speaking. And we are cutting red tape to simplify the requirements for investing in the Philippines. The Philippines is in a fight to turn around the economy to lift up its poor. You know what that fight is like because you have succeeded here in china. You have succeeded here in central and western china. And the Philippipnes is winning the fight. Slowly but surely, we're investing in our people and creating new hope and opportunity. Our administration has succeeded in breaking the back of our lethargic economic legacy by a combination of tough fiscal measures and equally politically difficult decisions to raise more revenue. In one legislative stroke -- and I thank our congressmen here for helping us do the important legislation -- we were able to stop the backsliding and move forward to drastically reduce our budget deficit and more importantly make long overdue investments in human and physical infrastructure. The biggest single act I was talking about, mainly responsible for the good performance of the Philippine economy, was the passage of our value-added tax which in one bold stroke raised serious revenue to send an unmistakable signal that we're serious about moving the nation forward. New revenues, better collection, a crackdown on tax cheats, prosecution of corrupt officials along with fiscal discipline has put the Philippines on a path to permanent economic growth and stability. New taxes are not easy, they are not pretty, they are not politically popular, but they have broken the cynical cycle of our political and economic life. That's not all, though. Our complete focus on the economy, on fiscal discipline, on balancing the budget and the need for long overdue human and physical infrastructure requirements help round out the economic surge. And it is paying off in a strong peso, low inflation, low budget deficits, low interest rates, a robust stock market -- in fact, the highest index in our country's entire history is what we're enjoying today -- rapid inflows of foreign investment, tripling of investments in economic zones and priority sectors, and we created almost six million new jobs in the last six years. Our unemployment rate -- well, not as low as Chengdu -- is the lowest in a long time. Our poverty rate is the lowest as well in a long time. Our economy has reached a new level of maturity with some of these strongest fundamentals, I was mentioning, and we have strong growth. Of course, we cannot compare to China's growth rates. No other country can compare to China's growth rates. But at least to comparing to other countries in our region or even in the world outside of China's phenomenal growth, our economy in this first quarter of 2007 expanded at the rate of 6.9 percent. We're proud of the fact that our external debt is being prepaid. But we are not resting, rather we're forging ahead to sustain the momentum. We're committed to consolidating our gains in new revenue, as I said earlier, by making long overdue investments in human and physical infrastructure. This includes billions of pesos in education, health care and training -- and we thank China for participating in our distance learning project -- along with billions in new bridges, roads and ports to upgrade the competitiveness of the Philippines. And we thank china for participating in these infrastructure projects. Because of these investments and our strategic location, your companies from Chengdu will also become more competitive if you do business in the Philippines. By investing in one another, trading with one another, and visiting one another, we show that we have confidence in a shared future together. And so in conclusion, we hope that the friendship we will forge here today will bring our lands and our peoples ever nearer to each other in the days to come. Thank you. Xie-xie. |
PGMA's
Speech during the Business Forum hosted by Chongqing CCPIT |
| Thank you. Thank you very much, Secretary Favila, the Philippine Secretary of Trade and Industry. Mayor Wang of Chongqing; Vice Mayor Wu; leaders of the government, the party and the business community of Chongqing; members of the official and business delegation from the Philippines; ladies and gentlemen. A good morning to all of you. Mayor Wang tells me that in this hall are the representatives of many of the large entrepreneurs and corporations of Chongqing. And I am very happy that you are here and I thank you for your warm welcome. And congratulations! To Chongqing on your tenth anniversary as a state-level municipality. Your tenth anniversary that you are celebrating this June is a great opportunity for us to be here and to dialogue with you. Open dialogue and trust between peoples and nations and economies have never been more important than in today's world. So we in the Philippines welcome this opportunity to communicate with the people, the government, the party and the business community of Chongqing in order to help forge stronger ties. Chongqing is very famous. It is the largest city in the world, located in the most populous and fastest developing country in the world. And has been said earlier, Chongqing represents China of the 21st century. Chongqing like china has unleashed the human potential of your vast citizenry by effective use of technology, science and engineering. The remarkable rise of China reflects the promise and challenge of the world in which we live. We, the rest of the world, the Philippines, see your dramatic growth in china lifting millions out of poverty and springing your nation squarely onto the world stage as a new global power. From the Philippine point of view, we welcome the surge in economic growth and development of china as a healthy development for our own nation. Your great internal market demand, your large domestic consumption is having a direct and positive impact on our own economy, on our own nation in terms of job creation and the balance of trade. I am happy to see, for instance, Philippine mangoes and other products being consumed by the people of Chongqing. Because of your consumption and market demand, it can be said that growth in Asia is transitioning from being export-driven to domestically-driven. And we hope this kind of growth continues. And we are happy to hear from honorable mayor that China considers the Philippines as a very important diplomatic partner. Because as china becomes a true political and economic giant, your obligations to your neighbors -- and the Philippines is one of your neighbors -- also increase separate from your obligations to your own citizens. China has an important and strategic role to play in the economic development and security situation of the Asia-Pacific region. And we, the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, look towards china to lead in promoting good neighborly relations and regional cooperation. In the Philippines, as I said, we benefit from the growth of China. China is now one of our three top trading partners. Our relationship with china is among the most important ties of our country. And we believe that this relation lifts up our nation as your relation with other nations lift them up too. China-Philippines relations are at an all-time high. As President Hu Jintao said when we met in Chile in 2004 and as Premier Wen Jiabao repeated during his official visit to the Philippines last January, our relations are at a golden age. Golden age meaning, more confident, more mature, and more comprehensive punctuated with substantial and important projects aimed at deepening exchanges in many areas not only economics, not only trade and investment, but even defense as well as economic assistance. Major landmarks of our relations include the Philippines-China Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Partnership Framework. China is also financing our Northrail, a very important railroad link from Manila to my home province of Pampanga. China is financing the national broadband network projects in the Philippines, a very important backbone of our telecommunications infrastructure. And, indeed, China and the Philippines continue to exchange high-level visits between our two countries. I have already mentioned our meetings with President Hu Jintao but he also honored us with a visit to Manila in 2005. And as I said Premier Wen Jiabao visited Manila last January as well as Cebu. And I have had the honor of having two state visits to the People's Republic of China in addition to the many business trips that I have been making including this trip here to Chongqing today. Why did we choose to come to Chongqing. It is because, as I said, our relations with China are comprehensive. And if they are comprehensive we must take into account China's "Western development strategy." in accordance with that strategy, we, Filipinos want to expand and deepen our relationships not only in the coastal areas but also in the central and western part of china. And that is why we are here today. Seeing Chongqing, we commend china for its success in spreading the benefits of development despite the challenges posed by the huge continental size. Here in Chongqing, which if you look at the map is exactly at the very heart of China. Here in Chongqing, in what was once an underdeveloped region of Western China and Central China, we find the largest city in the world. And we congratulate the Chongqing officials for the fast development of Chongqing in the past ten years. As the only state-level municipality in central and Western China, Chongqing is an ideal city to develop the Philippines' engagement with China's "western development strategy." you have a choice geographic location at the end node of the great Yangtze inland waterway that quickly makes you China's economic center, not just the geographic center. You are the home of China's primary inland waterway port. And once the three gorges dam fills up -- I understand next year, one year ahead of schedule -- the Yangtze inland waterway will be able to accommodate ocean going vessels as well. And therefore, it is important for us Filipinos to be here even before that happens, so that we will be one of your first friends. We hope that with our visit, there would be more bilateral exchanges between the Philippines and Chongqing, especially in the fields of trade, services, investments and tourism. Chongqing and the three gorges are drawing visitors from all over the world, including Filipinos. On the other hand, we hope more tourists from Chongqing will also visit the Philippines. The Philippines is a nation composed of many islands with beautiful white sand beaches. Chongqing does not have this white sand beaches because it is landlocked. This is one example of the complementarities between our two economies. And for the purpose of easier travel between each other, we support the proposal that we discussed last night over dinner, for the establishment of flights between the Philippines and Chongqing. Already Filipino-Chinese businessmen have seen the importance of Chongqing. There are several Philippine investments in Chongqing. One of them, which we just visited this morning, is the allied commercial bank or I believe the Chinese name is Xinlian Shangye Bank. The main office of Allied Bank is in Xiamen where many Filipino-Chinese come from but they have set-up a branch here in Chongqing located in the business center of the Hilton Hotel. We have another upcoming giant Filipino investment coming up. SM, the Philippine retail giant, also plans to... Also plans to set up a shopping mall in Chongqing as soon as the government, the party and the business community of Chongqing help them to find a suitable location for their shopping mall. They have opened already two malls in Fujian and one in Chengdu. They are anxious to set up another mall here in Chongqing. And just to give an example of how large their investments are, their shopping mall in Chengdu alone is worth 80 million U.S. dollars. In return... Oh, if I talk in return, why in return? Allied Bank, I asked the Chairman of Allied Bank, why did you set up a branch here in Chongqing? He said because there is brisk business. There is brisk export and import business to finance. For example, many of the tricycles -- which is a very important small scale enterprise for Filipinos -- many of the tricycles have their spare parts and components coming from Chongqing. That is one example of our complementarities. And so therefore, as we have big Filipino investors putting up shop here in Chongqing, in return, we invite Chongqing investments in the Philippines. Another example of a complementarity is this. A Chongqing company, Zongshe, is now the number one Chinese brand in the Philippine motorcycle market. Last night, I met with the President of Zongshe, and we are glad to learn that they are now investing in nickel mining and speedboat manufacturing in the Philippines. Why nickel? Another example of great complementarity between our two economies. Chongqing and China for that matter have a very great need for nickel. You don't have much nickel here if at all. But in the Philippines it is said that nickel is to the Philippines what oil is to Saudi Arabia. So, therefore, we are happy that many Chinese companies, not only Zongshe who needs nickel for its motorcycles, but many Chinese companies all over the large and huge People's Republic of China are interested and have been negotiating to invest in the nickel sector of the Philippines. Chongqing is a logistics hub of Central China. And more so it will become a logistics hub when the three gorges dam fills up. And as a logistics hub in central and western China, the Philippines also has a complementarity. It can offer Chongqing its logistics services because here in Chongqing and in China, third country logistics is important because china needs to import many of its raw materials and intermediate inputs. The Philippines is especially positioned to be a supplier of logistics services to China because of its strategic position in ASEAN. We are only a three hours away from Chongqing. We are much nearer than many of the other ASEAN capitals to Chongqing. We also have high-value, high- skilled labor well-versed in international logistics. We have existing economic zones. We have a ready supply of raw materials, as I have told you about the nickel, and also intermediate products especially semi-conductors, agricultural products and mineral resources. In fact, the Philippines is already a major semi-conductor supplier to china. Indeed, let me say that overall the Philippines offers one of the best values in Asia for Chinese investors. It is a competitive location for all companies in Chongqing looking to establish or expand their operations in the pacific side. Our strategic location in a fast-growing region. Our workforce being well-educated, productive and english-speaking. To all these we add that we are cutting red tape to simplify the requirements for investing in the Philippines. For Chinese investors, for Chongqing investors we have a system of special envoys to help you through making sure that your investment plans become a reality. The Philippines is focusing on raising our competitiveness by improving further the quality of our country's already good human resources by lowering transaction flows and costs of doing business and by developing efficient access to financing in a seamless infrastructure network. Our government has taken the difficult decisions to raise taxes so that we can have revenues needed to invest in infrastructure and services to create an economic environment that is conducive to investment. Yesterday, I met some Filipinos. Some of them are singing and playing in the bands in the hotels. Some of them are teaching English to the Chinese young people. Some of them are working in the high-tech industries located in central China. And these are examples of the good human resources that we have in the Philippines to work in the investments of the large and the small scale and the medium scale Chongqing companies that we'd want to invest in the Philippines. Indeed, our Philippine economy has reached a new level of maturity with some of the strongest macroeconomic fundamentals. Of course, we cannot expect to approximate or match Chongqing's growth rate of 10 percent. But compared to other economies in the region outside china, we are proud that our economy in the Philippines expanded at the rate of 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2007. The single biggest act mainly responsible for the good performance of the Philippine economy was the passage of our value-added tax which in one bold stroke raised serious revenue to send an unmistakable signal that we are serious about moving the nation forward. But that isn't all, we are completely focused on the economy, on fiscal discipline, on balancing the budget, and as I said earlier, on long overdue human and physical infrastructure improvements. This help round up our economic surge. This is paying off not only in our strong growth but also in a strong peso, in low inflation, in a robust stock market. We have now the highest index of the stock market in our country's history. We also have rapid inflows of foreign investments. They have tripled in our economic zones and priority sectors. And we have created six million new jobs in the last six years so that our unemployment rate is the lowest in a long time and our poverty rate is the lowest as well. Certainly, in this setting and with the complementarities of our two economies, there are opportunities for more engagement between our economies so that together we could realize a truly closer economic partnership. I am thankful that yesterday, the day before and earlier this morning, our group of top Filipino-Chinese business leaders were able to dialogue with the business leaders of Chongqing in order to explore business opportunities with each other. Our Filipino-Chinese businessmen are keen on deepening ties with potential partners in Chongqing. We certainly need more exchanges between our business communities. Therefore, we are happy to hear that Mayor Wang of Chongqing will lead a business, cultural and S & T delegation in the Philippines in the month of July. So we shall see each other once again next month. In the meantime, we have given instructions to our ambassador, Philippine Ambassador to China, that she should prepare a good program, a substantive program for the delegation. The message I want to leave you for today until we meet again next month is that we are building Southeast Asia's next success story. We invite you, our friends in Chongqing to be an important part of it. Thank you so much for your hospitality. Ni hao! Xie xie! |
