MANILA, Philippines — Chinese President Xi Jinping might announce "more funding" for the Philippines in his upcoming visit here in November, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Wednesday.
In an interview with ANC, Diokno said there will be “good surprises” in Xi’s November trip to Manila.
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“That will be announced by President Xi Jinping when he comes here in November... That’s the plan,” the budget chief said when asked if the Chinese leader will bring more financial help to the Philippines.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to upgrade the country’s dilapidated and aging infrastructure through his administration’s P8-9 trillion “Build, Build, Build” program. He has courted regional rivals China and Japan to help foot the bill for the construction boom.
Despite Duterte's warm relations with China, the Philippines has a long history of mistrust of it as the two countries continue to spar over the resource-rich South China Sea.
Philippine officials last week went to Beijing to meet their counterparts in a bid to fast-track the implementation of China-backed projects in the Philippines. Some of projects discussed in the meeting were the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project, the Kaliwa Dam Project, the North-South Railway Project-South Line (Long Haul), the Subic-Clark Railway Project and the Safe Philippines Project Phase 1.
At a forum on Tuesday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said “roadblocks” on the flow of Chinese aid had been resolved already during the recent high-level meetings in Beijing. China had been hesitant to co-finance certain projects with other lenders and to use renminbi in aid disbursement instead of US dollars. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral