MANILA, Philippines – The Board of Investments (BOI) is readying five measures which would make the country more foreign investment friendly and to counter provisions in the constitution which prohibits full foreign ownership.
BOI managing head Cristino L. Panlilio said the government imposed certain restrictions on foreign ownership which may be illegal or not allowed but were done in the past. Panlilio said they are now going to correct these things.
Panlilio refused to enumerate what the five measures are, only hinting that one of the big industries involved is construction.
Panlilio said there are also certain legislations which already allow full foreign ownership particularly in retail and mining. Under the Mining Law, foreigners may be the full owners of the business as long as they invest $50 million and above while an investment of $2 million and above in retail will allow foreigners full ownership.
Panlilio reiterated that there are legislative acts that already cured the very limited foreign investments law.
Panlilio said he is ambivalent with regards to allowing foreign ownership of land. Panlilio said two things are sure to happen when foreigners are allowed to own land. First, real estate prices will skyrocket. He said this is not a good thing given that there is a housing backlog. This forms part of the negative aspect because some lands will become too expensive for Filipinos. However, investments will create more jobs which will in turn increase the purchasing power of Filipinos and they will be able to afford more things.
The second negative thing with allowing foreign ownership is the idea that agricultural lands may be bought by Middle Eastern and Chinese firms. They are the ones concerned with food security and the worst case scenario would leave the Philippines importing food because we are not allowed to consume the food we are producing here because they are all earmarked for exports. –Ma. Elisa P. Osorio (The Philippine Star)
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