Philippine President Gloria Arroyo called on Saudi Arabia to “recycle its petrodollars” from record high oil prices into investments in the Philippines.

Speaking to businessmen on the second day of a visit to the kingdom, Arroyo also proposed that Saudi Aramco build an oil refinery in the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.
“Rich oil-exporting countries like Saudi Arabia could recycle their petrodollars ... into direct investments (in), and also long-term low interest loans for, the low income and middle income oil-importing countries,” she said during a visit to the Saudi investment authority Sagia.
“The Philippines, for instance, is a middle income oil-importing country, and we expect to see this kind of assistance from Saudi Arabia because we have very close ties” with the Gulf country, she said.
Arroyo reiterated her call during a meeting with Saudi and Filipino businessmen accompanying her on the four-day trip, noting that the more than one million Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia had made a “valuable contribution” to the country’s economy.