The China has expressed interest to extend its technical expertise to the Philippines to make Philippine products more competitive as the Southeast Asian region braces for transparent, liberal and facilitative investment regime with China next year.

“We are happy to do that. We will work with the Philippines to boost our economic cooperation, including technical cooperation in terms of agriculture,” Chinese Ambassador Liu Jianchao said in an interview in his residence at Dasmariñas Village in Makati City.

He expressed his government’s openness to boost its economic cooperation with the Philippines as China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area (FTA) is set to be implemented next year.

The Chinese chief diplomat also noted that under the Joint Action Plan for Strategic Cooperation signed between the two countries, China is interested in forging partnership, particularly in areas of tourism and mining.

Liu said he is “positive” that the FTA, which seeks to benefit about 570 million ASEAN consumers, would further expand the bilateral trade between the two countries.

“The FTA will pave the way for the expansion of trade between the two countries. I think this is good news (for us) and the rest of ASEAN countries,” he said. “China remains a big market for the Philippines and other ASEAN countries,” he added.

The Chinese government is set to hold the FTA forum next year to kick off the implementation of the investment regime.