Asean nations race ahead
Indonesia is set to launch the first high-speed train in Asean with China's help. Some 10 percent of Indonesia's global trade already uses RMB. About 65 percent of Vietnam's agricultural produce exports go to China. In 2021, $4 billion of Thai durian was bought by China, while the Philippines only scheduled to export $260 million of durian to China in 2023, made possible by Marcos' state visit in January. A staggering $3.4 billion of Vietnamese dragon fruit were gobbled up by the Chinese, none from the Philippines. Our Asean neighbors are seeking more China-backed infrastructure, after Vietnam completed its first metro rail, Cambodia completed hundreds of kilometers of new highways and 10 million passengers were transported by the Laos-China rail. Malaysia's largest Chinese-backed rail project is also 40 percent completed.
President Marcos warned of a looming water crisis. Angat Dam, which is the main water source of Manila today, was funded by a China concessional loan and completed ahead of schedule in 2012, even then-president Noynoy Aquino thanked China for the assistance.
Today, some forces are trying to derail the Kaliwa Dam project that's decades overdue and needed to modernize the water supply to Metro Manila — only China was willing and able to partner with the Philippines for this mega-project. We canceled three-rail projects, after years of negotiations. Fake and biased news continues against China. Yet critics of any China projects are asking, where are the China projects? These critics don't produce anything, but now they are raising the risk of war and poverty, for everyone.
Let them be poor for their gardeners sake.