Senior Philippine officials are visiting Beijing for talks on economic and trade cooperation.
The heads of the Philippines’ finance, budget, economic planning, public works, and transportation departments arrived on Sunday.
It’s the largest delegation of cabinet members from the Philippines to visit China in nearly a decade.
“We continue the discussions that were started between your President Xi Jinping and President Rodrigo Duterte when he came here. We want to continue our discussions to further enhance the Chinese-Filipino friendship as well as cooperation in the economic field,” said Carlos Dominguez III, Philippine Finance Secretary.
“During this meeting, we may accomplish the following: one is both sides will agree to restart the China-Philippines joint economic and trade committee, which has been stalled for more than five years. The second is we will negotiate a six-year plan for bilateral economic and trade development," said Wu Zhengping, director of Asian Department of Chinese Commerce Ministry.
The officials will meet with Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng on Monday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping had talks with his Filipino counterpart Rodrigo Duterte in Beijing three months ago. And the two leaders witnessed the signing of 13 cooperation agreements covering trade, investment, agriculture, and infrastructure development. (Courtesy China Central Television)