5 China firms eye $10-B PH projects

Five Chinese firms are interested to set up shop in the country, promising projects with a total estimated value of at least $10.3 billion (about P518 billion), the Board of Investments (BOI) said Friday.

Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo said the companies had submitted their letters of interest to the government, reflecting some of the earliest fruits of a warming relationship between China and the Philippines.

Each company would now pursue a feasibility study that would take around three to four months and cover business opportunities in aviation, oil downstream, renewable energy, iron and steel, and shipbuilding and ship repair industries.

While more concrete plans were expected to come out some time this year, Rodolfo said the projects were already estimated to add a total of at least 14,500 jobs by 2022, assuming they would begin their commercial operations in 2020, Rodolfo said.

If the companies choose to actually register their investments, this would help boost foreign direct investment pledges from China, which rose by only 4.42 percent to P1.52 billion in 2016 from P1.46 billion the year before, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.

Rodolfo identified the Chinese companies as Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) International Aero-development Corp., Liaoning Bora Enterprise Group Co. Ltd., Huili Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd., Dalian Wanyang Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., and YiDingTai (YDT) International.

Liaoning and its Philippine partner agreed on a joint venture worth $3 billion in the construction and operation of a retail network, oil storage terminal, refinery projects and allied industries in the Philippines with an estimated 2,000 jobs to be created.

Huili Investment wants to set up a $3-billion world-class steel mill, which could make the Philippines a major producer of high-quality steel products by 2030. The project, which will be in partnership with both the national government and the private sector, is expected to have a production output of three million MT of rolled steel, and give jobs to 6,000 people.

Dalian is looking at a $2.8-billion project that will convert household and commercial solid waste to energy. The project, which will generate 312 megawatts of electricity for every 4,000 to 5,000 MT of waste, will employ at least 4,500 workers by 2022.

YDT International, an affiliate of Dalian Wanyang, wants to develop a 1.5 billion dollar shipbuilding and ship repair facility in the country, which can produce regional-size vessels up to 15,000 deadweight tons.

This was a welcome development, said Rodolfo, especially since most roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) ships in the country were second-hand imports from Japan, with the existing ones in the Philippines averaging 30 years old.

The BOI said that the company was studying the proposal with a Philippine partner and that the venture was expected to generate 2,000 jobs.

AVIC International, which did not disclose its estimated value of investment, will explore the manufacture and provision of helicopters, aircraft and aviation related products, equipment and services.