Interview: Philippines welcomes more Chinese investment: senior official

Secretary of the Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways Rogelio Singson on Wednesday called here for more Chinese investment in the island country, especially in infrastructure construction in terms of roads and bridges.

According to the secretary, the Philippines introduced a hierarchy system to attract foreign contractors, in the meantime, to protect local smaller enterprises.

The system requires a minimum investment or equity capital of 1 billion Philippine peso (about 21.12 million U.S. dollars) for smaller projects and of about 64 million dollars for projects like roads and bridges construction.

"It means smaller contractors in the Philippines could get small contracts and could also involve in larger constructions. I know there are a lot of Chinese contractors who have that much of equity capital," Singson told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

The secretary noted that in a group of projects, four out of six were awarded to Chinese contractors. "We welcome more Chinese investment, especially in roads and bridges construction."

The secretary highlighted the importance of investment in connectivity building in his country.

The Philippines has already leveled up its investment in infrastructure from about 1.8 percent of its gross domestic product to about 5 percent so as to improve the quality and safety of its roads and bridges and social services like schools and hospitals especially for rural areas.

Infrastructure level in the Philippines remains low and gaps in infrastructure may lead to disparity over outside investment in regional countries, according to analysts.

Laurent Sinclair, a pacific affairs research analyst, told Xinhua earlier that as infrastructural development is largely based on technical knowhow, necessity and, perhaps, most importantly, foreign investment, on this point, there remains a disparity in the region's infrastructural development.

"As the returns on investment are based on projects for a certain country's economic future over another's, this has created a hierarchy in the region, based on growth projections," he said, highlighting the link between infrastructure development and foreign investment.

According to Singson, the Philippines put focuses on three major infrastructure areas in terms of roads and bridges, tourism and farm-to-market routes.

The secretary said the country eyes tourism as one of its major economic drive and the improvement in farm-to-market routes as a key way to eliminate poverty by lowering logistic cost since most of the country's poverty come from farming community.

"We hope foreign enterprises could set their bases here in the Philippines so that they may attract more overseas Philippine workforce to return and therefore more works can be done here as well as in the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region," said Singson.

To boost regional development of infrastructure, China has launched its Belt and Road initiative and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

"From construction point of view as the public works and highways department, being a member (of AIIB) would be beneficial," the secretary said, adding that "We are definitely looking for a win-win situation for all of our neighbors." Enditem