PNoy Aquino: dapat ay palakasin ang kooperasyon nila ng Tsina

Ipinahayag ngayong umaga sa Beijing ni Pangulong Benigno Aquino III ng Pilipinas na nakahanda ang kanyang bansa na palakasin, kasama ng Tsina, ang kanilang bilateral na kooperasyon.

Winika ito ni Pangulong Noynoy sa Philippines-China Economic & Trade Forum. Isinalaysay ng Pangulong Pilipino ang kapaligirang pampamumuhunan ng Pilipinas sa mga kalahok na tauhan ng sirkulong pangkabuhayan at pangkalakalan ng Tsina.

Sinabi niya na buong sikap na patataasin ng kanyang pamahalaan ang transparency at lilikha ng isang mas pantay na kapaligiran ng pamumuhunan.

Narito ang talumpati ni Pangulong Aquino sa porum na ito:

REMARKS OF HIS EXCELLENCY BENIGNO S. AQUINO III

PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

AT THE PHILIPPINES-CHINA ECONOMIC AND TRADE FORUM

CHINA WORLD HOTEL, BEIJING, CHINA

AUGUST 31, 2011

I would like to thank the Chinese people for their hospitality, and am pleased to welcome you to this conference. Your interest in the Philippine economy goes to show that my people's newfound optimism spills over to our neighbors here in China, and this has been attested to by two success stories of Chinese investments in the Philippines we just heard.

Let me add that other Chinese businessmen havepartnered with our Public Works and Highways Department. The Hebei Road and Bridge Group Company, Limited, and the China Henan Shuili; Yiju company, for example, have partnered with our Public Works and Highways Department in order to upgrade and maintain roads in Mindanao.

As I speak, these projects, worth 12 and 11 million dollars respectively, are currently being undertaken; and both are expected to be completed in 2013.These projects are only two examples of the enthusiasm that results from partnerships between our countries.

We want even more of our people to work with you towards partnerships that are mutually beneficial: After all, by 2015, with the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community, the Philippines will be the Northern gateway to the region. The time to open that gateway, together, is now.

As I have been saying this past year: the Philippines is open for business. The atmosphere has not been this conducive for business in a long time, and as you have seen from Undersecretary Panlilio's presentation, my government continues to take steps to facilitate the entry of investments in our country. He has outlined our priority sectors, and enumerated our efforts to make the process of setting up and doing business in the Philippines easier. We have made the registration of business names a lot moreconvenient for businesses.

Our Department of the Interior, together with our Trade Department, hasalso been working with Mayors, Governors, and other local government officials to harmonize local statutes with national laws to make it easier for businesses to operate.

Most important among our efforts, however, is instilling a culture of transparency and integrity in government: weeding out corruption, and ensuring that businessmen—whether from within our shores or from foreign enterprises such as yours—are met with a level playing field.

What this simply means is that investors will not anymore have to rely on connections in order to set up shop; the rules will not be circumvented and the law will be followed, creating an environment that is stable and predictable—and therefore, one that is conducive to profit.

The biggest change between the Philippines under my administration and under the previous government is a change in mindset. We will not take short-cuts in order to close deals; we will follow the correct procedures. We will always take the long view in order to achieve lasting progress for our country.

The Chinese, perhaps amongst all the peoples of the world, know the value of taking the long view. You appreciate the point of thinking not only about the next step, the next day, or the next deal; you think years, even decades and generations into the future, strategizing your moves.

To this end, my country is taking a clear direction: we know that transparent and fair processes build investor confidence. More businesses mean more jobs, giving our people more chances to rise in society.

Parallel to this, the gains in our national economy are being channeled into developing our infrastructure and into investments in our people in the form of social welfare programs, such aseducation and health.

At the bottom line: equitable and inclusive growth for my people, which will empower them as consumers, who will further spur the growth of businesses.

As you can see from this strategy, we are taking a holistic approach - one that anticipates problems and addresses their different aspects. These initiatives will benefit not just investors like you, but my people as well, through the jobs that we hope to create through your investment. Through your support, the resulting improvement will be felt not only by the privileged few in our country, but by Filipinos across all strata of society.

Already, the signs are encouraging. The first quarter performance of the economy is well within expectations as the country's gross domestic product grew by 4.9% percent. Compared with the performance of some of our Asian neighbors, our first quarter growth is higher than that of Thailand's 3.0 percent, Republic of Korea's 4.2 percent and Malaysia's 4.6 percent.

Our stock markets have also hit all-time highs seven times since my administration took office. My country has received four credit ratings upgrades in over a little more than a year—this compared to only one upgrade and six downgrades in the previous nine years.

I encourage you to ride on this wave of optimism. The time to put in place strategic investments in tourism, agriculture, and infrastructure, is now. You can seize these various opportunities in the Philippines, including those under our PublicPrivate Partnership program. Also, consider the opportunities in the country's significant competitive advantages: a highly skillful and well educated workforce, a youthful and large domestic market, and natural endowments for tourism, among others.

The ties between the Philippines and China go back centuries and I am hoping that our continued partnership will become stronger than ever. In the past our commercial relations have been more beneficial to you, than to us. Now, we have come here to balance the equation.

Together we can achieve mutual growth and provide benefits to our peoples. China is an economic power; I now invite the Chinese business community to take part in this opportunity to invest in an emerging economic force in the South East Asia.

I look forward to welcoming your investments into the Philippines. Let me declare once again: the Philippines is open for business.

Thank you