MANILA - Filipino and Chinese officials agreed to fast-track infrastructure projects funded by Beijing, the Philippines' Department of Finance said Friday.

Preparations for the projects have been "moving quite fast ahead," Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi on Beijing last Aug. 22, the DOF said.

"Under the guidance of President Duterte, we have been working very hard to achieve both the goals of President Duterte and President Xi Jinping in the development of the relationship between China and the Philippines," Dominguez was quoted as saying.

Wang said concrete actions were needed to move the projects forward.

President Rodrigo Duterte's economic managers met with Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss the first basket of projects up for Chinese financing, the finance department said.

• Economic team to meet with Chinese officials in Beijin

Net foreign investment from China grew 534 percent from January to May 2018 compared to the whole 2017, the DOF said. Total approved investments from China also grew by 57.14 percent over the previous year.

Bilateral trade between China and the Philippines reached $13.9 billion in the first half of 2018, it said.