FILE PHOTO: President of the Philippines Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. attends a news conference after the European Union (EU) and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) commemorative summit in Brussels, Belgium December 14, 2022. REUTERS/Johanna Geron
MANILA, Philippines — The new bilateral agreements that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. entered into with China will support the Philippine Development Plan (PDP), according to National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) chief Arsenio Balisacan.
The President secured a total of 14 bilateral agreements with China. These included agreements on tourism, agriculture, infrastructure, trade, information and technology. Details of the agreements have yet to be disclosed by the President.
READ: In the know: 14 bilateral deals PH inked with China during Marcos Jr.’s state visit
“It’s very promising again to say that PDP will be in a way supported by trust like this and we need to move fast again. As I said, move fast, seize the opportunities, get our houses into order. We have so many things to fix,” said Balisacan in a statement from the Presidential Communications Office.
According to Neda’s website, the PDP is the agency’s five-year plan “for deep economic and social transformation to reinvigorate job creation and accelerate poverty reduction by steering the economy back on a high-growth path.”
Balisacan said that China can bring investments that create jobs in manufacturing, tourism, agricultural business, and logistics. In the medium and long term, this could make the Philippines more competitive.
“The productive capacity of the economy will improve, will be enhanced, and hence the productivity of labor will increase and that’s what will, in the end, support continuing rises in wages, and those increases,” said Balisacan.
Baliscan emphasized that the Philippines must move fast to secure opportunities such as the new agreements with China.
“I think we have to move fast to seize those opportunities. As you know, because [if] you don’t seize them, when they arise, and then you may lose them,” said Balisacan.