China is open to provide concessional loans up to 700 million U.S. dollars to fund infrastructure projects in the Philippines despite previous setbacks in economic cooperation, the top Chinese envoy to the country said Tuesday.

Ambassador Liu Jianchao told a media forum here that the disbursement of the 700 million dollars, as much as one third of the total 1.8 billion-U.S.-dollar concessional loans, has just picked up after a notable slowdown due to the collapse of a telecommunication deal between Chinese and Filipino companies.

The 330-million-U.S.-dollar National Broadband Network (NBN) project was scrapped in late 2007 after critics blamed Filipino officials for allegedly pocketing bribes to broker the deal. But such allegation was repeatedly denied by the government.

Liu said the incident hurts China-Philippines economic cooperation for some time and a number of projects were put on hold.

"It is a learning process for us, but we have already moved forward," Liu said, adding that an irrigation project and a water supply project are now lining up to tap the Chinese concession loans.

"I hope we can eventually move away from the NBN scandal," Liu said, adding that China is still open to funding infrastructure projects in the Philippines, especially those to the immediate needs of the Filipino people.

People familiar with the official development assistance said, according to the agreement, only projects participated by Chinese companies are eligible for tapping the concession loans and needs the recommendation from the Philippine government.

Liu said Chinese companies are enthusiastic in doing businesses in the Philippines but sometimes find it hard as they are not well briefed on the business environment and legal framework in the Philippines.

(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2009)