China ‘contributes to global progress’
Philippine commerce chief says country is ‘major trade partner, especially in tourism and agriculture’,
With its strong will and visionary leadership, the Communist Party of China will continue to be a catalyst for world economic recovery and prosperity, says the president of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
“I am impressed by the high caliber, wisdom, vision, benevolence, long-term strategic thinking and commitment to reforms of China’s leaders. Their leadership has uplifted China and has contributed to world progress,” says Henry Lim Bon Liong, who is also the chairman of Philippine-based hybrid rice research and production company SL Agritech Corp and the Sterling Paper Group.
China has emerged as one of the top developers and producers of COVID-19 vaccines. The United Arab Emirates became the first government in the world to approve the use of Sinopharm’s shots in December, followed by Bahrain.
During the opening of the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly last year, President Xi Jinping pledged that the COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment in China, when available, will be made “a global public good” as China’s contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.
Fast forward to today, Chinese-made vaccines have swept much of the world, sparking mass inoculation programs in dozens of countries, including in South America and European countries like Hungary and Serbia amid news of vaccine supply shortage and uneven distribution.
“July 1, 2021, marked the historic milestone of the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China, currently led by the enlightened President Xi. This auspicious event comes at a time when China is emerging as the only major world economy to have posted a positive growth rate in 2020, due mainly to the CPC leaders and the Chinese people having decisively and efficiently contained the pandemic,” says Lim.
On the momentous occasion, Lim says, he looks forward to China accelerating its socioeconomic reforms, which include its positive approach in foreign policy of upholding multilateralism, dialogue and international cooperation.
In a grand gathering in February, Xi announced China’s “complete victory” in its fight against absolute poverty, while underlining the need for unrelenting efforts to solve the problems of unbalanced and inadequate development and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas.
According to the World Bank, since China began to open up and reform its economy in 1978 its GDP growth has averaged almost 10 percent a year, and more than 850 million people have been lifted out of poverty. Today, China is an upper-middle-income country and is the world’s second-largest economy.
The Philippines itself is one of the beneficiaries of the Chinese vaccines. The Southeast Asian nation received its first batch of donated Sinovac COVID-19 CoronaVac vaccines, officially kicking off the archipelago’s vaccine program on March 1.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly thanked the Chinese government for the friendship and solidarity — the hallmark, Duterte said, of the Philippine-Chinese partnership.
The federation, with its 170-strong member organizations, purchased 500,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines for “economic frontliners” to “lessen the burden of the Philippine government” and “safeguard those at the forefront of socioeconomic development”.
The civic project was financed by voluntary donations and purchases by federation members and it partnered with major hospitals nationwide and the vaccinations were undertaken in auditoriums or places near these hospitals.
Complementary economies
Even if the road to recovery is confronted with many challenges, Lim says he believes the blossoming of Philippines-China diplomatic, economic and other cooperation will weather them all because “both countries share the same goals of economic development and stability for our Asian region”.
He describes the Chinese and Philippine economies as “more complementary” rather than being competitors.
“The Philippines can export foods, minerals and other resources, also possible future manpower like English teachers and service industry staff, while China can export to us technology, investment capital, infrastructure,” says Lim.
“The Philippine economy also needs China as our major trade partner, as a huge tourism and agriculture market, source of technological know-how and investment capital.”
In 2019, China became the Philippines’ largest trading partner, with Chinese investments in the archipelago reaching $962.6 million in 2018.
Lim also says more can be done with Philippine exports to the Chinese market.
In support of enhancing bilateral trade ties, the federation has participated in the world’s biggest import expo hosted by Shanghai in East China every November.
“We want to boost Philippine exports to the world’s biggest and increasingly affluent China consumer market,” says Lim.
When it comes to tourism cooperation, the Philippines’ Department of Tourism’s data showed that Chinese tourists spent a total of $2.33 billion in the Philippines in 2019. Further, a total of 1.74 million Chinese tourists visited the Philippines in the same year, up 38.58 percent from 2018.
In his personal capacity, Lim says, his businesses have had positive cooperation with China, especially with his hybrid rice firm SL Agritech Corp, a pioneering hybrid rice seedlings technology company in the Philippines.
The company has benefited from technical cooperation from China and valuable encouragements from China’s revered hybrid rice technology pioneer Yuan Longping. SL Agritech has exported hybrid rice to the United States and some countries in the Middle East.
On his journey to establishing SL Agritech Corp in the 1990s, Lim met several Chinese leaders along the way, such as former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, whom he describes as a “larger-than-life” leader, and former president Hu Jintao.
“I remember premier Zhu giving a speech before businessmen saying that China had only 7 percent of the world’s arable lands and 22 percent of the world’s population, that high rice productivity had helped food security. I was very inspired by premier Zhu’s words, (and) by China’s hybrid rice technology led by Yuan,” says Lim.
Lim met former president Hu on several occasions in Manila and in Beijing.
“It was an honor also for him to visit a special exhibit of my SL Agritech hybrid rice technology exhibit at Century Park Hotel. This venture to help uplift Philippine rice productivity was inspired by China’s hybrid rice pioneer Yuan,” says Lim.
In spite of centuries of peaceful trade and many positive socioeconomic contributions by Chinese entrepreneurs in the Philippines, even long before the Spaniards colonized the archipelago, Lim says there are still some “residual misunderstandings and age-old misconceptions”.
“I see these unfair ideas as having been rooted mainly in past Western colonial prejudices against the early Chinese traders and migrants, especially the Spanish colonizers,” says Lim.
“The good news is, through the past decades, our ethnic Chinese minority and ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs have continuously improved our standing with the rest of Philippine society, gaining acceptance as an integral part of the Filipino nation.”
Lim says one example of this continuously improving social acceptance is the federation’s role in urging Filipino legislators to declare Chinese New Year as an official holiday in the Philippines.
“This will not only benefit Philippine tourism industry to entice East Asian tourists to vacation in our archipelago, but having this official holiday is recognition that we Filipino citizens of Chinese heritage and culture are fully accepted as part of the Filipino nation,” says Lim.
I am impressed by the high caliber, wisdom, vision, benevolence, long-term strategic thinking and commitment to reforms of China’s leaders.”
Henry Lim Bon Liong, president, Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry
Road to recovery
Seizing the economic momentum was what Duterte’s administration has ignited, thanks to his pivot to China.
Lim says he hopes to sustain it through constant and sincere dialogues, frequent communications and high-level contacts to fortify mutual trust and seek out win-win opportunities “where we can mutually benefit and learn from each other”.
“President Xi has forged a strong and friendly bond with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, strengthening the historical friendly ties between the Philippines and China to unprecedented higher levels,” he says.
And it is natural that there are disagreements or misunderstandings between nations. But Lim says, all issues, big or small, can be thrashed out amicably or set aside for future discussions as “trusted friends and partners”, like brothers or best friends who also have occasions of disagreements, too.