High power cost drives away foreign investors

(DTI) on Monday admitted that the high cost of electricity in the country gives foreign investors second thoughts about investing in the Philippines.

DTI Secretary Gregory Domingo said that despite low turnout of foreign investors in the country, the Philippines was able to compensate through exports.

But Domingo added that electronics, which represents half of the total exports of the country, went
down by 9.1 percent after the tsunami tragedy in Japan.

“Japan is our biggest client of electronics and the effects are felt after the Fukushima incident but other sectors like garments, coconut and agricultural products heavily contributed to wipe out losses,” he told reporters during the weekly forum Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel, saying that the Philippines managed to gain more than 20 percent in overall exports.

When asked on what the Trade department has done to address concerns of the foreign investors, Domingo said that they have talked to the Department of Energy about it and that DOE vowed to talk to power suppliers to lower their rates.

According to him, it is difficult to convince power producers to lower their rates because of high cost of fuel in the international market but, since it is rainy season in the Philippines, hydroelectric plants are working, in the process contributing to trimming down the cost of electricity.

Domingo said that they were cooking something that would bring down the cost of electricity and the effect could be felt in the next three years.

He did not elaborate.

Domingo said that they are selling to foreign investors some provinces, where they could invest to give residents there jobs.

“Creation of jobs is also one of our priorities and we are marketing these (provinces) to foreign investors to trim down the number of jobless in the country,’ he explained.

The selling game, Domingo said, can also entice people to go back to their provinces, knowing that jobs are available and that they can work while living with their families.

This game, he added, gives Metro Manila a breather from the huge number of job-seekers from the provinces. –Sammy Martin, Reporter, Manila Times