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Two Chinese major companies will help the Philippines rehabilitate and extend a railway line on the main northern island of Luzon under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on Friday.
Under the MOU signed with the Philippine National Railways, China National Technical Import and Export Corporation and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation will help rehabilitate the 400 km-long Mainline South railway from Calamba in Laguna province to Legaspi in Albay province.
The two Chinese companies will also help build a 108 km-long railway that will extend the Mainline South from Legaspi to Matnog in Sorsogon province.
The Chinese companies committed to complete the project within four months and subsequently develop a firm fast track implementation schedule with 100 percent financing under the most favorable obtainable terms available from China.
The completion of Mainline South will kickstart the economic development of the entire south Luzon region and the railway extension will create a gateway that will spur trade between Luzon and the central Philippine region of Visayas.
During China's top legislator Li Peng's visit here in September, the two sides also signed a memorandum of agreement on China's assistance in the construction of railways in the northern Luzon region.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Speaker Jose de Venecia of the House of Representatives attended Friday's signing ceremony at the presidential palace. ]
(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2002)
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