2010 Investments Priorities Plan Orientation in Cebu

August 27, 2010

The Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) Board of Investments (BOI) will bare the 2010 Philippine Investments Priority Plan (IPP) during an orientation seminar to be held on September 10, 8:00am - 5:00pm at the Crown Regency Hotel, Cebu City.


The preferred areas of investments are agriculture/agribusiness and fishery; infrastructure; manufactured products; business process outsourcing (BPO); creative industries; strategic activities; green projects; disaster prevention, mitigation and recovery projects; research and development and innovation.

The IPP also specifies incentives that industries in their respective categories could avail
Incentives are in the form of income tax holidays and tax exemptions; additional deduction for labor expense; duty-free importation of capital equipment (pursuant to E.O. 528); tax & duty-free importation of spare parts and supplies for CBMW operators; tax credit on domestic breeding and genetic materials and raw materials & supplies; exemption from wharfage dues; additional deduction from major infrastructure works located in LDAs; employment of foreign nationals; zero-rated value-added tax; and unrestricted use/importation of consigned equipment.

Agriculture/agribusiness and fishery covers production and processing of agricultural and fishery products including their by-products and wastes, biofuels, feeds and fertilizers.
Infrastructure covers air, water and mass rail transport, water supply and distribution, logistics, energy and power generation projects, waste management facilities, mass housing, physical infrastructure, pipeline projects for oil and gas, and projects under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) law.

Manufactured products covers shipbuilding and manufacture of machinery and equipment including parts and components; other transport equipment for air, water and land; cement, modular housing components for mass housing projects; iron and steel products; and chemical compounds and biological substances other than food intended for use in the treatment, prevention or diagnosis of diseases in humans or animals.

Business process outsourcing covers the voice and non-voice services enabled by information technology (IT) including procurement and sourcing services.

Creative industries covers non-BPO, IT-enabled services and film, TV and theater arts production.

Strategic activities are projects that exhibit high social and economic returns and require large investments that will significantly contribute to the country's economic development taking into consideration the amount of investments, the employment it generates, and the use of new, emerging, and technologically advanced products or services involving breakthrough processes and innovation.

Green projects covers the production of goods the utilization of which would lead to either the efficient use of energy, natural resources and raw materials, or minimize or prevent pollution or environmental degradation; systems and processes that would involve the application of cleaner and more efficient technologies on carbon and other greenhouse gases emission reduction.

Disaster prevention, mitigation and recovery projects are those that will prevent or mitigate adverse impacts of calamities and disasters. Examples of these are installation of dikes and flood control systems; early warning systems for typhoons, earthquake occurrences, tsunami, and volcanic eruptions; and including training for disaster preparedness, mitigation or recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Research and development and innovation projects are those commercial and in-house R&D activities, establishments of centers of excellence (COE), innovation, and skills development training institutions.

Besides the priority or preferred areas or activities, the 2010 IPP also contains mandatory list of activities that require their inclusion in the IPP as provided for under existing laws.
Included are those covering extensive plantation of forest land of tree crops (Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines); exploration and development of mineral resources, mining and other allied activities (Philippine Mining Act); establishment of waste recycling facilities (Ecological Waste Management Act of 2000); establishment of industrial wastewater and sewage water treatment facilities (Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004); tourism enterprises (Tourism Act of 2009); and including manufacture of export products, export services and activities in support of exporters under the Export Activities, among others.

The BOI is currently doing orientation seminars on the 2010 IPP in key cities in the Philippines.
For more details on the Cebu IPP orientation, please call DTI-Cebu at 412-1863 and 253-2631 local 18.

The orientation seminar, part of BOI's roadshow for the IPP around the country, will be attended by representatives of the public and private sector: local government and line agencies, the business sector and the academe from the Visayas.
Under the Omnibus Investment Code of 1987, the BOI is responsible for the regulation and promotion of investments in the Philippines.

Gov’t acts to improve RP’s competitiveness, business environment

THE DEPARTMENT of Trade and Industry will implement this year a number of programs geared toward providing a better business environment and making it easier for investors to set up businesses in the country.

“The urgent task to improve business environment is not just to improve [competitiveness] rankings, but to spur more growth, more development, and ultimately, reduce poverty,” said Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo.

“2010 is the year of milestones in enhancing the business environment and improving competitiveness,” he added in his presentation during the mid-year economic briefing Wednesday.

To ease the cost of doing business, the DTI is putting up a Philippine Business Registry (PBR), a fully secured national business registry database for easier processing of business information, Domingo reported.

Domingo said the “portal” will facilitate business registration-related transactions among government agencies and local governments, as well as automatically provide numbers for Bureau of Internal Revenue, Social Security System, Pag-Ibig and Philhealth.

Another initiative, Domingo added, is the Business Name Registration System (BNRS), which will allow the registration of business names within 15 minutes, with a simplified application and localization of filing.

The DTI also targets to put up and/or implement this year a nationwide streamlining program for permits and licensing systems; a National Economic Research & Business Assistance Center that will serve as a one-stop-shop for start-up businesses; innovations in Sales Promo permit system; reduction of processing time for product safety certification, among others.

To attract more investments, Domingo said DTI will promote key priority industries, including tourism, business process outsourcing and information technology; electronics; housing; mining and agribusiness.

According to the latest World Economic Forum Enabling Trade Index (ETI), the Philippines is becoming less attractive as a business destination.

The index trackers reported that the country fell 10 notches to the 92nd position this year from last year’s 82nd.

The Philippines was one of 125 countries that the ETI had ranked in terms of market access - both foreign and domestic - and border administration, including efficiency of customs administration, efficiency of import-export procedures and transparency of border administration. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

No. 2 * 08/18/2010

What Trade dept will do to comply with new budgeting method

In line with the Aquino administration’s zero-based budgeting (ZBB) thrust, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is in the process of beefing up its organization by rationalizing the various agencies under it. In a telephone interview last week, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said “significant major changes” would be implemented in Trade department’s organizational structure.

“For DTI’s part, rationalization will have the largest impact in our zero-based budgeting efforts,” Domingo said.

“You have to align the organization to your strategies,” Domingo said.

“You should determine what you need to do.”

For instance, Domingo said 80 percent of the functions of DTI’s National Capital Region office (DTI-NCR) is aligned with enforcement of consumer laws, but the unit is currently under the Regional Operations and Development Group (RODG).

“So one of the things we will do is to transfer DTI-NCR under the supervision of the Consumer Welfare and Trade Regulation Group [CWTRG], in order to beef up enforcement efforts,” Domingo said.

Domingo said Undersecretary for Industry and Investments Cristino Panlilio, who is also the Board of Investments’ managing head, is tasked to spearhead reorganization efforts in the Industry and Investment Group (IIG), which currently covers four agencies.

Undersecretary for Consumer Welfare and Trade Regulation Zenaida Maglaya is in charge of reviewing the CWTRG, which currently oversees seven agencies.

Undersecretary for Regional Operations Merly Cruz, meanwhile, is spearheading the review of the RODG, which has about three agencies, 16 regional offices and 81 provincial, city and area offices under its coverage. Domingo said all efforts to develop micro, small and medium enterprises will be consolidated under this group.

Assistant Secretary Ramon Vicente Kabigting, who is currently officer in charge of the International Trade Group, is leading the review of the nine agencies under the group.

Domingo said he and his people are currently conducting a review of the foreign trade offices, and he said “a couple of offices” might be closed.

There also are nine government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) attached to the Trade department, namely, the Aurora Special Economic Zone Authority, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, National Development Co., Optical Media Board, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Philippine International Trading Corp., Philippine National Construction Corp., Securities and Exchange Commission, and Small Business Corp. These are being reviewed as well.

Domingo said certain domestic offices “that outlived their purposes” would also be closed down. He said a few agencies have been pre-identified, but he did not divulge which to The Manila Times.

Domingo said some Trade department units would be transferred to other government departments. He said the Build-Operate-and-Transfer (BOT) Center “will go to NEDA [the National Economic and Development Authority].”

At the same time, Domingo said there are possibilities that some government agencies currently not attached to the Trade department may also be transferred to its supervision.

Domingo said the internal review of the department organization is expected to be finished by the end of this month.

He said the Department of Budget and Management would then have to act quickly on the reorganization of the Trade department, so that it could be implemented beginning early next year.

The department currently has about 1,980 people in “plantilla” positions (with regular salaries and appointments).

Domingo said the Trade department is actually understaffed. “Since 2005, [DTI has not] been able to hire more employees,” he said.

“We need the rationalization plan approved to fill up vacancies,” Domingo said.

He said that in the department’s case, rationalization would result in “minimal layoffs, [but] a lot of transfers [of people].”

Domingo said the department is transparent in its rationalization and reorganization efforts.

No negative feedback has been received from employees, because “as long as the process is transparent and fair, employees will respect the decision,” he said. (by BEN ARNOLD DE VERA REPORTER/ Manila Times / August 8, 2010)


no.1  *  08.09.10