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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao - on a state visit to Manila on Monday (January 15) after attending the East Asia summit in the central Philippines - and Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo witnessed the signing of 12 agreements, including one on the provision of a 500 million U.S. dollar (USD) Chinese loan for the construction of a railway north of Manila. During Wen's visit, which continues into Tuesday (January 16), the two countries are also to sign 17 other agreements involving investments worth 1 billion pesos (4.9 billion USD) in the farm sector over the next five to seven years. The biggest of the deals was a memorandum of agreement inked on Monday that will allow the Jilin Fuhua Agriculture Science and Technology Co. Ltd. to invest 3.83 billion USD in one million hectares of land in the Philippines for higher-yielding corn, rice and sorghum. Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said two agreements with total investments worth 43.4 billion pesos will also be signed with the Beidahuang Group, the corporate state farm of the Heilongjiang province. One of the agreements with the Beidahuang Group will be for the development of 200,000 hectares for rice, corn and other crops on Luzon island in the northern Philippines. Beidahuang is also expected to sign another agreement to set up a 120 million USD agro-industrial project with all-weather greenhouses for the production and export of flowers and off-season vegetables and fruits to Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Five ethanol projects were signed on Monday, three of them involving Nanning Yongkai Industry Group. One of the joint venture projects involving Nanning will produce 150,000 litres per day of ethanol. The production estimates of the two other projects were not immediately available. Yap said an agreement would also be signed with the Agricultural Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to develop an initial 40,000 hectares for cassava and sugar in the Philippines to produce ethanol for export to China. China and the Philippines, which are both trying to cut dependence on imported oil, are turning to crops that they grow in abundance such as sugar, cassava, corn and coconut oil to produce alternative bio-fuels. Yap said a deal that would allow Filipino exporters to enter China's more than 1-billion USD fruit market would also be signed during the visit of Premier Wen. In an agreement to be signed with the Jiangnan Wholesale Market, the Philippines will be allowed to sell fruits such as papaya, bananas, pineapples and mangoes in the largest fruit and vegetable area in China. "These agreements are expected to further reinforce existing trade and investment ties between Manila and Beijing and herald what China has described as the golden age of bilateral relations between our countries," Yap said in a statement. (1 U.S. dollar = 49 pesos)