Phl eyes 2 M tourists from China by 2016

BEIJING – The Philippines and China agreed to boost cooperation on tourism and increase tourist arrivals to two million from both countries by 2016, President Aquino announced yesterday.

Aquino and Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on Wednesday witnessed the signing of the Implementation Program of the Memorandum of Understanding on Tourism Cooperation between the two countries.

This implements the MOU on Tourism Cooperation signed by both countries on Sept. 11, 2002. The implementation program covers the years 2011 to 2013.

The projects in the implementation program include the exchange of tourism professionals and administrators, exchange of information, joint promotion, tourism investment, language and cultural training, and support for tourism fairs and exhibitions.

The agreement came a year after the bloody Aug. 23 hostage crisis that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead.

Hong Kong had issued a black travel alert against the Philippines.

Chinese Ambassador to Manila Liu Jianchao said Beijing will not intervene in lifting the adverse travel alert since Hong Kong is independent and an autonomous region.

Aquino, who was in this city as part of his state visit, told reporters in an interview late Wednesday that China gave a lot of commitments for the development of the country’s tourism industry.

He said China would give the Philippines a grant so it could conduct feasibility studies on all the infrastructure needed to make the country more attractive to tourists.

Aquino said the “nautical highway which actually increases access to so many other areas” was also discussed.

The Chinese account for one-third of the foreigners registered by the Bureau of Immigration (BI), according to commissioner Ricardo David.

David said that as of July 31, the BI’s Alien Registration Division (ARD) showed 61,689 Chinese citizens have registered. They comprise a third of 189,448 aliens registered with the BI. –With Evelyn Macairan