PGMA invites Chinese electric firm to explore investment possibilities in RP power sector

BEIJING, People’s Republic of China -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has invited a leading Chinese electric company to visit the Philippines and propose ways to harness the country’s natural power resources.

The President made the invitation to officials of Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC) who called on her Thursday in Chengdu City in Sichuan province, her first stop in her current trip to China.

Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila said the DEC officials who met with the President were led by Wang Ji, chairman of the power firm.

Favila said several other Chinese business leaders called on the President to discuss investment possibilities in the Philippines.

After the meetings with the Chinese businessmen, the President motored to the Sichuan town of Dujiangyan to distribute four truckloads of Oishi noodles donated by Philippine Special Envoy Carlos Chan to the May 12 earthquake victims.

Dujiangyan was among the areas hardest hit by the May 12 disaster. The quake victims have been resettled by the Sichuan in relocation sites.

The President and her 11-member delegation arrived in Beijing from Chengdu City last night.

DEC is a state-owned company specializing in “power equipment manufacturing and worldwide power projects contracting for thermal, hydro, nuclear, wind, gas turbine, combined-cycle power plant, and power distribution systems.”

President Arroyo noted that DEC’s electric power-sourcing expertise is “something we would like to see” and so she “invited them to come over (to the Philippines),” Favila said.

The DEC officials briefed the President on their projects, offering to build some for the Philippines, and so she said, “Come visit us in the Philippines, have a look,” Favila said.

The DEC has an annual power production capacity of more than 23,000 megawatts (mw). Its products range from 0.75 mw to 300 mw; 600 mw, and 1,000 unit capacity for thermal energy; plus up to 700 mw unit capacity in hydro; 1,000 mw for nuclear power; 2670 mw gas turbine; and 1.5 mw wind turbine.

Hundreds of DEC “products” are now being operated both domestically and overseas such as the United States, Canada, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Albania, the former Yugoslavia, the Philippines and Peru.

The Philippine government has been looking for ways to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fuel oil by investing heavily on non-oil programs, including the largescale cultivation of jatropha.

The Arroyo administration has also stepped up efforts to harness hydro, wind, steam and solar power as sources of energy.

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RP-China two-way trade volume hits $30 billion 2 years ahead of 2010 target
BEIJING, People’s Republic of China (PRC) – The two-way trade between the Philippines and China breached the $30-billion mark last year, a full two years ahead of the two countries’ 2010 projected trade target.

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that based on figures provided by the General Administration of Customs China Philippine-China trade in 2007 amounted to $30.62 billion.

This represents a 30.8 percent increase over the 2006 figure of $23.4 billion, with the Philippines enjoying a trade surplus since 2001.

Philippine-China trade has been growing at an average rate of 41.39 percent since 2001, based on figures released by the Philippine National Statistics Office (NSO).

“In 2006, bilateral trade with China amounted to $8.2 billion, with RP exports amounting to $4.6 billion and imports amounting to $3.7 billion, giving RP a surplus of $945 million,” the NSO said.

Based on these figures, the NSO said that China is now the Philippines’ third largest trading partner, after the US and Japan.”

China’s General Administration of Customs, however, has come up with an even more impressive assessment of Philippine-China trade, saying that “China is already supposed to be the Philippines’ No. 1 trading partner.”

China’s customs office also reported that “trade imbalance in favor of RP is growing – RP exports to China amounted to S17.67 billion, while imports from China reached only $5.74 billion.”

The trade figures were provided by China customs service as backgrounder to the four-day visit of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s four-day working visit to China to attend the opening of the Beijing Olympics, and the series of meetings she is holding with prospective Chinese investors in the Philippines.