Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian has warned that POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) is bad for the bilateral relations of the two countries as he emphasized that such operation only brings harm to the local economy and social development of a country.
“We believe that the POGO industry not only has brought a lot of harm and negative impacts on China but also on the Philippines and overseas and of course negative impacts on the bilateral relations,” said Xilian during the Pandesal Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 25.
In fact, he said that “China is actually a victim of POGO” and has been working closely with the Philippine government agencies concerned to crack down on illegal POGO.
Xilian further said that many countries have learned lessons from the negative impacts of POGO on their economies and social development and totally banned the industry. “China is just one of them, who has totally and comprehensively banned POGO. POGO is illegal for any Chinese citizen not only at home, but also overseas,” he pointed out.
He expressed hope that Philippine government authorities will fully realize the harms that POGO bring to the country and the people.
Meantime, Xilian said that the Chinese government is “ready to have further communication with new administration” on the three major railway projects with Chinese funding which were scrapped during the last days of the Duterte administration.
Xilian emphasized the infrastructure is one of the key areas of the new administration under the “Build Build More” program. “I believe that Philippines needs to accelerate your infrastructure program,” he said.
He added that China is working on 11 infrastructure projects with Philippine neighbors in Southeast Asia, including Laos, Malaysia, and Jakarta.
On agriculture, Xilian vowed of increased importation of tropical fruits from the Philippines, such as bananas, avocados and soon durian and mangosteen
He said that some protocols are just being ironed out to prepare for the entry of additional tropical fruits from the Philippines and urged for the promotion of these fruits at the Shanghai Expo in November this year.