President Duterte is expected to push for the country’s closer economic linkages with China and other trading partners when he returns to Beijing this week.

The President is scheduled to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in Beijing on May 14 and 15. He will join 27 other heads of states, and dozens of government and business executives for the forum that focuses on promoting infrastructure development.

“The President’s foreign engagements will be focused on securing the national interest,” Robespierre Bolivar, spokesman of the Department of Foreign Affairs, said in a press briefing at the Palace.

“Anything that can help the Philippines in its economic development is very welcome and we believe that the Belt and Road initiative can be a helpful mechanism for the Philippines to promote its economic interests in the region,” he said.

So far, Boliva said the Philippines-China relations have been “steadily improving in all aspects” over the last few years. “It’s also a welcome development for us to engage more actively with China on economic cooperation,” he added.

The Belt and Road Forum is China’s latest strategy to build a trade and infrastructure network in Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road trade routes. The forum includes a leaders’ round table to be chaired by President Xi Jinping.

“The topics they are expected to discuss include: infrastructure connectivity; economic and trade cooperation; industrial investment; energy and resources; financial support; people-to-people exchanges; ecological and environmental protection; and marine cooperation,” Bolivar said.

Bolivar said the Philippines plays a significant role in facilitating world trade given its strategic location.

“The Philippines played a crucial part in the Manila–Acapulco–Spain galleon trade and if you have that on the eastern part of the country and at the western part, you have the new maritime Silk Road, then it would reinforce the view that the Philippines is actually a central part to facilitating world trade,” he said.

“That’s something definitely that the administration is looking at how to promote that strategic role in facilitating world trade,” he added.

Bolivar said the President’s bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders are still being arranged on the sidelines of the BRF.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Genalyn Kabiling

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