Top RP official expects trade with China to balloon

He added that the Philippines’ trade with the Asian economic giant could reach $60 billion in five years as targeted. Lopez announced the estimated sum of all the government-to-government and business-to-business deal sizes during a “Philippines-China Business Forum” on Thursday.
The trade tsar also expressed optimism that with the renewed friendship between the Philippines and China, trade between the two countries could double or even triple to reach the $60-billion target in five years. He said the same could be expected from investment flows and influx of tourists.
He said in a text message that |the $13.5-billion total package included the private-sector memoranda of understanding signed by Philippine business delegates with their Chinese counterparts.
The amount also includes the concessional loans and private-sector funding committed to public and private Philippine enterprises.
JG Summit Holdings president Lance Gokongwei, owner of a company set to sign a financing deal with the Bank of China, said the group would use the proceeds for infrastructure projects.
Filinvest Development Corp president Josephine Gotianun-Yap likewise said her conglomerate was signing a financing deal with the Bank of China to fund infrastructure|projects.
Reghis Romero is among the business delegates who have scored a number of big-ticket deals involving Chinese contractors during his trip. In an interview on Thursday, Romero said he was set to sign that evening the Davao Coastline and Port Development project worth around 39 billion pesos (Bt28 billion), a project to be constructed by the China Dredging Corp and Construction Communication Corp. 
The 214-hectare coastline project, which will be undertaken by his company Mega Harbor Port and Development Inc, is a five-year project to transfer the coastline of Davao City from Agdao and Poblacion Districts into a “well-planned, decrement and self-contained community”. This is a partnership with the local government of Davao.
Romero was also set to sign a 16.5-billion-peso Cebu Inter-national Container and Bulk Terminal project, which would build a berthing facility of up to 1,200 metres as part of the 35 hectares allotted for port development.
The third project is a 7.5-billion-peso, 50-hectare Harbor Center Port Terminal extension project in Manila, which seeks to alleviate port congestion in Manila. Earlier, it was reported that China Railway Group had committed to invest up to $3 billion in Philippine infrastructure projects.