Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian (Photo from Amb. Huang's Facebook page)
MANILA – The Chinese Embassy in Manila on Thursday said China wants to continue strengthening its cooperation with the Philippines in the area of infrastructure.
The statement came a day after reports that the Philippines has withdrawn its request for Chinese official development assistance (ODA) funding the Mindanao Railway Project due to lack of progress in negotiations.
Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian did not make any direct reference to the withdrawal but said China envisions a well-implemented Belt and Road Initiative, a development strategy that seeks to address the large infrastructure gap across Europe, Africa, and Asia.
“It is wished that China and the Philippines could continue strengthening cooperation in agriculture, energy, infrastructure, people-to-people exchanges amongst other fields to jointly promote high-quality development in the future,” he said in his remarks at the 49th Philippine Business Conference and Expo in Manila.
The lack of development in talks and the eventual pull-out have sparked speculations that Beijing may have lost interest in funding Philippine infrastructure projects although none in the Philippine government has confirmed this.
No official information has also been given regarding the reason behind the pull-out.
At present, the Department of Transportation is looking for other sources possibly a “combination of Philippine government support, ODA, and private sector support” to fund the PHP81.7 billion Mindanao Railway Project Phase 1 Tagum-Davao-Digos Segment. (PNA)
