China's policy to open door wider to the world a 'noble act': Philippine trade secretary

MANILA - China's policy to open its door wider to the outside world will benefit developing countries like the Philippines, Philippine Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said on Thursday.

In an interview with Xinhua, Lopez said China "is now continuously supporting the globalization and liberalization of trade." He said the "noble act" is "very timely" given the recent developments that "some countries" are moving to "actually bring some trade wars."

Lopez lauded China for opening its market to the world, especially to developing countries.

"Definitely, this (strategy) will have a positive impact (to the world)," Lopez said.

Lopez said China has been adopting a strategy to buy more products from other countries to balance the trade with all the other countries.

"I think what China is doing is simply to continue the process of globalization and not build high tariff barriers and share prosperity with others," Lopez said.

China is the Philippines' largest trading partner, the largest source of import and the fourth largest export market.

Lopez said China's move is important given that China is one of the largest economies in the world.

"China is a huge country and huge economy, it gives hope to the smaller countries like the Philippines because China is thinking this way. This is the right way," Lopez said.

"China's idea of 'building a community with a shared future for mankind' is very fair to mankind and music to our ears," he said.

"We would like to see that happen. We are very happy China is a mature economy with the Chinese good values. Noble, honor and fairness. Those are values we inherit from China centuries ago," he said.

Lopez cited the big number of Chinese living in the Philippines and the kind of values the Chinese community has imparted to the Filipinos.

"You can feel that this sets a role model and future form that everyone should follow. Fairness, impartial system, shared prosperity, balanced increase. These are all positive initiatives that China can do for the world," Lopez said.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. Lopez said the Philippines can learn a lot from China's development in the past 40 years, including how China promoted investment, and manufacturing in creating more jobs, he noted.

"This is the key that we achieve the growth. We need to take advantages of opportunities being provided by China, which means the Philippines needs to produce more to supply the Chinese market," he said.

Lopez said the China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November is a great opportunity for the Philippines to show off its products to the world.

Over 100 Philippine product and service exporters, as well as investors and government representatives, showed the willingness to attend the event.

"We appreciate the openness of China, especially to the Philippines. The challenges for us are how to cope with the opportunities coming our way," Lopez said.