PHL to benefit from China’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative — Finance chief

The Philippines stands to reap the benefits from the China-initiated "One Belt, One Road" (OBOR)  initiative as it coincides with the massive infrastructure spending plan of the Duterte administration, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.

In a statement issued by the Department of Finance on Tuesday, the Finance chief described the OBOR in recent interview in Hong Kong as a “powerful idea" that will promote free trade and integrate economies across Asia and Europe.

“We think that Philippines will definitely benefit in participating in this One Belt, One Road project particularly in the Maritime Silk Road section of that project,” Dominguez said.

“The Philippines is building a lot of infrastructure, of course with the help of China, and among the infrastructure that we are building are ports and airports. That will help lower the cost of shipping our goods to, say, Hong Kong or to Shanghai and that will open markets to us along the corridor between China and the Middle East and Europe,” he noted.

The Cabinet official said that with airports and seaports as part of the government's “Golden Age of Infrastructure,” the maritime silk road component of OBOR will open new markets for Philippine products in Beijing's planned corridor between China and the Middle East and Europe.

He said the Philippines’ manufacturing industry, particularly companies producing electronics, and its food exports sector, especially those selling tropical fruits will have more and quicker access to new and profitable markets under the OBOR project.

“We are the largest exporters of tropical fruits (in Asia) so definitely there will be a lot of benefit to us if we are able to open markets in let’s say Kazakhstan, in Uzbekistan [and other countries], along the One Belt, One Road area,” Dominguez said. “And that’s aside from our manufactured goods.”

The OBOR initiative, valued at about $1 trillion, aims to get some 60 countries to invest in infrastructure projects to develop land and maritime routes following the old Silk Road network that once connected China to Central Asia and Europe.

Dominguez said earlier that “DuterteNomics,” which is the Duterte administration’s economic strategy to sustain high growth and make it inclusive for all Filipinos, is anchored on an unprecedented infrastructure program that will require about P8.4 trillion over the medium term. — MDM, GMA News