TOKYO—Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said here that the Philippines is “not turning its back on anybody” and just wants to “make more friends” in the ecoomic field as the Duterte administration rebalances the country’s foreign policy via the swift regional integration with its Southeast Asian neighbors as well as with China, South Korea and Japan.

Dominguez said in media interviews that the Philippines’ move towards speedy integration with its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) neighbors along with Asia’s three economic giants is integral to the new government’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda, the foremost goal of which is to drastically reduce poverty while sustaining—and boosting—growth.

“We are just expanding and looking more to regional development,” he said. “We want to be more integrated with ASEAN. We want to be more integrated with North Asia. We want to be integrated with the big market in China. We want to be integrated with Japan more closely. And we want to be integrated with South Korea.”

“Just like in Europe, they have the EU (European Union). In America, they have the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)—Canada, US and Mexico. And in South America they have the Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur),” he said.

“You know they’re trying to ground a common market,” he said. “So, we’re just following the trend around the world. We are making more friends; we are not turning our back on anybody in the economic field.”

A member of President Duterte’s official party in his just-concluded three-day official visit to Japan, Dominguez said: “We firmly believe that trade is the best way to achieve one of the first goals of Mr. Duterte in his presidency and that is the reduction of poverty. It’s been stuck at 26 percent for a long time you know we always say that globalization is a good thing but to create well but it’s not very good to spread well.”

He noted that the Philippine economy has been growing very well “but the average guy doesn’t feel it,” hence the objective of the 10-point socioeconomic agenda to not just sustain high growth but also to transform it into a truly inclusive one.

“Our President has said that he has really three goals,” he said. “The first goal is to reduce poverty. We think that globalization is a good tool for increasing wealth; but it is not a good tool for spreading wealth. And the last Administration has not spent enough money to create new jobs.”

“So, we are going to do two things, we’re going to spend a major portion of our budget on infrastructure investment outside of the Metro Manila area where the poverty is. And we will create good jobs there, and connect them to the rest of the economy,” he said.

Dominguez said the second goal of the President is of course “to bring about a society that is more law-abiding, follow the law, we want to be like Japan. Everybody here follows the law voluntarily so, we will move to that.”

“And lastly, the President wants peace. He wants peace within our country…and he wants peace with our neighbors.”

Said Dominguez: “So we think the Japanese companies will take a look at this program of ours, our 10-point economic program, and find many opportunities for business there. So, we are looking for investments, and we are looking for markets as well in Japan.”

Dominguez and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia have said that the Philippines’ economic integration with its fellow-members in the ASEAN, along with China, Japan and South Korea, opens the country to a lucrative market of 1.8 billion people across the region.

They said that while the Duterte administration will maintain its good relations with Western economies, it will now push for “stronger integration” with its neighbors in the region.

Earlier, Mara Warwick, the World Bank Country Director for the Philippines, said that “macroeconomic stability puts the Philippines in a good position to accelerate inclusive growth that benefits all Filipinos.”

According to the World Bank, its report noted that “as economic growth is sustained, and as spending on health, education, and social protection expands, extreme poverty is projected to decline from 10.6 percent in 2012 to 7.8 percent in 2016, 7.2 percent in 2017, and 6.7 percent in 2018.”

The World Bank report also took note of the Duterte administration’s plan to pursue comprehensive tax policy reforms as one of its priorities, “to make the country’s tax system more equitable, efficient, and competitive in the region.”

The IMF, meanwhile, has welcomed the new government’s intent to sustain high growth and “accelerate poverty reduction,” as a staff team of its Executive Board noted that poverty, income inequality and unemployment persisted in recent years despite the country’s favorable macroeconomic performance.

During President Duterte’s official visit to Japan, Dominguez informed investors that now is a “fine time” to invest in the Philippines as Tokyo rekindles its ties with Manila and the Duterte administration has crafted a “business-friendly” socioeconomic agenda that underlines its readiness and capability to drastically reduce poverty and lift the economy to high middle-income status in six years’ time.

The Philippines and Japan also signed agreements that would help the former improve its maritime safety capability, including a deal for a P16.5 billion yen concessional loan covered by Tokyo’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the acquisition of two large-scale patrol vessels for the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

The agreement for the 16.5-billion yen loan signed by Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) president Shinichi Kitaoka during President Rodrigo Duterte’s official visit to Japan is part of Tokyo’s continuing assistance to the PCG’s Maritime Safety Capability Improvement Project (MSCIP).