PH economic team to hold China roadshow

Economic managers and other cabinet officials will hold a roadshow in China to trumpet the Duterte administration’s “golden age of infrastructure” that aims to create more jobs and realize its goal of economic inclusion for all Filipinos.

Led by Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, the “Build, Build, Build” roadshow is set on September 27 to 29 in China to promote the government’s planned “golden age of infrastructure,” the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement yesterday.

Along with Dominguez, other cabinet members are Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar.

Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) President Vivencio Dizon will also join the delegation to meet with high-ranking Chinese officials and discuss the progress of the preparations for the Philippines’ big-ticket infrastructure projects.

Some of the infrastructure projects will be funded by Official Development Assistance (ODA) from China, DOF said.

The Philippine delegation will meet with Chinese ministry officials on September 27 in Beijing and proceed the following day to Shanghai, China’s financial center, to generate support for the “Build, Build, Build” program of the Duterte administration.

The Duterte administration is planning to spend between R8 trillion and R9 trillion on its “Build, Build, Build” program, over the next five years.

Based on government estimates, its infrastructure program is expected to generate 106,824 additional jobs this year; 823,696 jobs in 2018; 1,115,999 jobs in 2019; 1,228,963 jobs in 2020; 1,399,463 jobs in 2021; and 1,705,023 jobs in 2022.

While the average rate for infrastructure spending in the past administrations was 2.6 percent of the economy, the Duterte presidency plans to ramp it up to 5.32 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for this year alone with an infra budget of R847 billion.

The Duterte administration plans to gradually increase the public infrastructure budget to 1.2 trillion in 2018; 1.4 trillion in 2019; R1.5 trillion in 2020; R1.7 trillion in 2021; and R1.9 trillion in 2022.

According to Dominguez, the Build, Build, Build program will be funded by a combination of resources from its proposed comprehensive tax reform program (CTRP), foreign development aid and commercial loans.

He said the first package of the CTRP — the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act or TRAIN, which is now pending in the Congress, will serve as the “cornerstone” of the funding for the government’s ambitious infrastructure program.

Last March, the Philippines and China signed agreements on the conduct of preliminary studies for two proposed bigticket infrastructure projects in the Visayas and Mindanao during the visit of Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang to President Duterte’s home city of Davao.

Dominguez and China Commerce Vice Minister Fu Ziying, who is also China’s International Trade Representative, formalized the agreement on the conduct of preliminary feasibility studies for the proposed Davao City Expressway and the Panay-Guimaras-Negros Island Bridges Project through an exchange of letters.

Pernia and Minister Fu also signed the Six-Year Development Program (SYDP) that “aims to steer and promote the stable and orderly development of economic cooperation between the two countries.”

The SYDP also aims to “enlarge the scope and enhance the level of cooperation between, and drive sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development in, the two countries,” according to the Department of Finance.