Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the stronger cooperation between the Philippines and China could help the two countries defy headwinds that threaten to stifle economic growth in the years ahead.
Dominguez said like China, the Philippines was well-positioned to maintain its high growth trajectory “long into the future” such that the government retained as its fighting target a gross domestic product expansion rate of 7 percent for 2019 despite adverse trends in the global economy.
The source of the Philippines’ growth, he said, was its increasing shift from consumption to investments, supported by a growing domestic market as well as more intensive regional integration among Southeast Asian economies.
“The economies of our two countries are leading the region in growth. Both our economies demonstrated resiliency in the face of global challenges. With our increased cooperation, we can better defy the adverse developments at the global level and continue our rapid expansion to benefit our peoples,” Dominguez said in a keynote speech during the Philippine Economic Briefing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Beijing.