(Yicai Global) Nov. 20 -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wants a Chinese firm to become the third telecommunications company in the country, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said at a presser today.

Duterte announced the offer last week during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, GMA News reported.

The government now awaits Chinese telecom companies' submission of their proposals. The Philippines' telecommunications industry is in the pincers of a duopoly between Globe Telecom Inc. [PS:GLO] and PLDT Inc. [PS:TEL; NYSE:PHI], which must be broken soon to provide better telecom service to millions of users, Roque said.

The last time the Philippines government dealt with a Chinese company on a communications project was in in 2007 when it signed a several hundred million-dollar deal with Guangdong province's ZTE Corp. [SHE:000063] for a national broadband Network.