Investments in PH slow

The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines said Wednesday the Philippine economy is growing but noted the “slow arrival” of foreign investments in the country during the first year of the Aquino administration.

“Except for BPO [business process outsourcing], foreign investments’ arrival has been slow during the first year of the present administration,” John Forbes, senior adviser of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, told a press briefing in Makati Wednesday.

The BPO sector is expected to post at least $11 billion in revenues this year, up 20 percent from last year’s $9 billion.

Forbes said if the government exerted more efforts in attracting foreign investments, sustained growth would not be far-fetched and the country’s competitiveness ranking would improve.

He said the country should improve its ranking because neighboring countries in the region “are not slowing down.”

The foreign chambers urged the government to review the general rule on foreign ownership, which is limited to 40 percent against 60 percent by Filipinos.

“The law on foreign ownership has been here since 1935, meaning it is already 75 years old. It was retained in the 1987 Constitution. But the world has changed since 1935,” the chambers said.

The group, however, backed President Benigno Aquino III’s “open-skies” policy in March, noting that the Philippines could expect more tourist arrivals in the coming months.

“The ‘open-skies’ policy could even result in the tripling of the 3.5-million tourist arrivals last year in 2016,” Forbes said.

The chambers, meanwhile, urged the government to properly implement the Philippine Mining Act, to lure foreign investors.

“The Philippines is blessed with mineral resources. The country has an excellent mining law. The [Philippine] Mining Act is very good provided that it is implemented properly [by the government],” Julian Payne, president of Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, said in the same briefing.

“There are many problems in the [mining] sector, like local government units don’t support mining,” he said, adding that various groups had also been very vocal in opposing large-scale mining in the countryside. -Julito G. Rada, Manila Standard Today