PHL to benefit from Belt-and-Road, chairmanship of ASEAN — HSBC

THE PHILIPPINES is to benefit from China’s multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative, particularly in terms of financial and technical support, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. (HSBC) said.

HSBC’s Philippine President and CEO Wick A. Veloso said: “We have on our table right now an opportunity for technology and funding opportunities from China.”

Speaking at teleconference with HSBC executives from Indonesia and Thailand on Wednesday, Mr. Veloso said: “We see a good opportunity with this mutual cooperation,” he noted.

“One Belt, One Road” is a project of Chinese President Xi Jinping to revive the ancient silk trading routes, both land and sea-based, connecting Asian markets with Europe. It intends to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects including railways, ports and power grids.

China has set up a $40-billion Silk Road Fund to bankroll the scheme’s infrastructure programs, with additional financing from the $100-billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte signaled the country’s interest to join the initiative by attending the Silk Road Summit on May 14-15.

“Also important that we are part of this important infrastructure project that the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative has created not only for the rest of those impacted but in general for the Philippines, our involvement in employment locally to have more of our poor in the provinces have the opportunity for employment and the deployment for our skilled workers outside Mero Manila but also in other parts of the Philippines,” Mr. Veloso said.

“The expertise of Filipinos in exporting manpower can also be exercised if they can enable the same amount of technology to their countrymen by supporting infra across the country,” he added.

The Philippine chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) last January 2017, offers more opportunities for businesses here to explore business in other countries.

Mr. Veloso said yesterday that some corporates are looking to tap overseas markets, particularly Vietnam and Thailand, but gave no details.

“A retail conglomerate has been looking at opportunities in Thailand and Vietnam primarily (in) the same kind of business that they have but they’re not looking at directly doing it by themselves but they would like us to introduce them to a local partner,” he said. “Now they’re embarking on engineering, and would like to review opportunities in ASEAN for distribution and further manufacture of their engineering products,” he said.

“The long and short of it is the strong consumer demand from the 630 million- strong ASEAN population is a very big motivator for these companies to expand,” he said. — Janine Marie D. Soliman