Hon. President Renato Ampril,

Distinguished guests,

Friends from the Rotary Club,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great honor and pleasure to attend the luncheon of Manila Rotary Club today. Let me begin by extending my thanks to President Renato Ampril and all other friends for their kind invitation and hospitality.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am glad to note that the Rotary Club in the Philippines has done a great deal in providing health care and medical supplies, clean water, food and job training to the needed. Your persistent dedication and remarkable achievements are greatly appreciated by the local community.

The coming Wednesday, that is June 9th, will mark the 29th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines. Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher, once said “you can acquire new knowledge by reviewing the old”. Therefore, It may be useful if I briefly review our valuable experience over the past 29 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations and share with you some ideas on how to strengthen our friendly relations and cooperation in the years ahead.

The Republic of the Philippines was the first Southeast Asian country to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1975. Since then the Sino-Philippine relations have been developing steadily with each passing year. Now our bilateral relations have matured into a new phase of all-round development, thus marking the best period in history. Now let me show you some figures to elaborate my point:

Exchange of high-level visits. We have witnessed over the past 29 years a gradual increase in high-level visits and contacts. During the first 20 years from 1970s to 1980s, there were only 2 high-level visits. In 1990s, high-level visits and contacts between our two countries increased to 18. The increasingly closer high-level contacts between our two sides in this century, particularly President Arroyo’s visit to China in 2001 and Chairman Wu Bangbo’s visit to this country last year, have demonstrated the strong aspiration of our leaders to maintain and develop long-term and stable political relations between our two countries.

Bilateral trade relations. Due to some political reasons, the Sino-Philippine trade relations suffered serious setback for more than 20 years after 1949. The situation improved modestly after 1972. Starting from 1990s our bilateral trade grew rapidly from US$300 million in 1990 to US$5.26 billion in 2002, showing an annual increase of over 25%. Our bilateral trade volume last year was US$9.4 billion with US$3.2 billion in your favor. In the first quarter of this year, our bilateral trade volume reached US$2.68 billion, increased by 64% as compared with the same period last year. During this quarter your country exported US$1.82 billion worth of products to China, increased by 70.5%, and China’s export to this country was US$0.86 billion, also increased by 51.5%. Our total bilateral trade volume is expected to reach US$10 billion by the end of this year.

Mutual investment. In the early years after 1975, our mutual investment was very slow business and only began to grow gradually in the 1990s. In 2003, the total investment of the Philippines in China reached US$220 million; China on the other hand provided to the Philippine Government US$400-million preferential buyer’s credit earmarked for the construction of the North Rail Project, which is the largest Chinese infrastructure investment project in Southeast Asia. Some other investment projects are also being discussed at this stage.

Agricultural cooperation. China provided US$100 million export credit to support Philippine agricultural development in 2000. China also used US$5 million to construct an Agricultural Technology Center in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija which went into operation last year.  The selected varieties of Chinese hybrid rice have been successfully cultivated in the Center. At present, the average rice yield is 3.3tons per hectare in this country. If local farmers can use the best seeds chosen by the Chinese experts at the Center, they may harvest 11 to 14 tons of rice per hectare on average. This is of great significance in obtaining food security in your country and increasing the income of many local farmers. In Feb. 2004, China National Technical Import and Export Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippine Coconut Administration to jointly develop high value-added coconut products. The launching of this project will bring more income to local coconut farmers, benefiting as many as 25 million people in this country.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I can hardly exhaust the fruitful results of our cooperation in all fields due to the time restraint. However, one can realize from the above-mentioned figures that remarkable progress has been made in the Sino-Philippine relations over the past 29 years.  Now we may summarize our bilateral relations in the following points:

First, our two governments and peoples have the political aspiration and firm determination to develop the Sino-Philippine friendly relations and cooperation.

Second, our two countries can learn from each other and supplement each other in efforts to develop our respective economies.

Third, the continuous development of our economic and trade cooperation has enhanced our mutual understanding and trust, thus promoting a win-win result economically.

Forth, our cooperation has vast potential for further development, the future of which is very promising.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since ancient times, China has long cherished the fine tradition of “showing kindness, fostering trust and friendliness with your neighbors”. We shall continue to build good-neighborly relationship and partnership with neighboring countries by bringing harmony, security and prosperity to our neighboring areas. We shall continue to strengthen and develop the political trust and economic cooperation between our two countries. For this purpose, I believe that the following measures need to be taken:

First, further efforts should be made to enhance our friendly relations and political trust so as to promote the bilateral cooperation.

China and the Philippines share a very large measure of common ground and at the same time have disputes on certain issues. I believe that for true friends, they may stay together in "harmony without agreeing on everything". During President Arroyo’s visit to my country in 2001, our leaders have reached an important consensus on the peaceful settlement of disputes and they also agreed that the existing disputes between our two countries should not become an obstacle to upset our bilateral relations. This consensus has paved the way for us to achieve a mutually beneficial win-win scenario on the basis of enhanced trust and cooperation.

   

China will continue to promote high-level visits and bilateral exchanges in all fields, to find a peaceful solution to our existing disputes through dialogues in the spirit of mutual respect, and to consult our Philippine friends and coordinate our efforts on major international and regional issues so as to create a more favorable environment for our common development and prosperity.

In my view, the further development of our friendly relations and cooperation requires social stability in our respective countries as well as a peaceful surrounding environment. In this respect, we understand and support the efforts of the Philippine Government in promoting the peaceful process in the South and combating separatism and terrorism for the purpose of safeguarding national unity. Meanwhile, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Philippine Government and its people for their consistent adherence to the “One China” policy over the years and their valuable understanding and support for the Chinese people.

Second, further efforts should be made to deepen our bilateral cooperation by supplementing each other so as to seek common development.

As the world’s largest potential market, a developing China represents an important opportunity for Asia. China and the Philippines can, as developing countries, supplement each other in many areas. China will increase its import of competitive products from the Philippines, such as fish, shrimps, tropical fruits, coconut oil, processed food, woodcut crafts, plastics, software and automatic data processing equipment etc, over the next few years.

Furthermore, China’s successful entry into the WTO offers a good opportunity for Sino-Philippine economic and trade cooperation. China is honoring its commitments under the relevant terms for WTO entry by reducing its import tariffs drastically and opening its domestic market wider to the outside world, which I believe also provides more market and investment opportunities for Philippine investors and exporters. President Arroyo said on many occasions that China’s entry into the WTO not only brought competition and challenge to the Philippines, but also huge business opportunities. The ASEAN-China free trade zone and the Early Harvest Program will certainly bring enormous business opportunities to this country.

In the future, we will continue to explore new areas of cooperation on the existing basis, concentrate on the key areas of cooperation beneficial to both countries, and improve the effectiveness of our work so as to bring about common prosperity.

Third, further efforts should be made to promote jointly regional cooperation in Asia and contribute to the peaceful development of this region.

Although the Asia-based regional cooperation started rather late yet it is developing rapidly in recent years. Both China and the Philippines are Asian countries, therefore the development of our respective countries is closely related to the prosperity of the Asian region. A famous Chinese saying goes  “harmony brings mutual benefit”. China sincerely hopes to strengthen and deepen her bilateral cooperation with the Philippines and all other Asian countries in a common endeavor for Asia’s stability and prosperity and then we will be able to show to the world a peaceful, open and prosperous new Asia.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines. Confucius said, “A man became firmly established at the age of thirty”. In China, the age of thirty means maturity, enthusiasm and vitality. It is my firm belief that, so long as we work together to cultivate a close partnership that features political equality and mutual trust, economic mutual benefit, cultural exchange and emulation, and security dialogue and cooperation, and so long as we continue to explore and deepen our cooperation in such areas as energy, mining, forestry, paper industry and tourism etc, we’ll certainly be able to push the Sino-Philippine bilateral relations to a higher stage.

Friends, you are from all sectors of the Philippine society. I sincerely hope that you will continue to support the development of the Sino-Philippine friendly relations and cooperation, and make your due contribution to promoting the mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries and the prosperity of Asia.

Thank you and Mabuhay！