Gov’t offered 100-day agenda

A FIVE-PRONGED AGENDA for the Aquino administration’s first 100 days was bared yesterday by the country’s largest business group.

A 24-page document, released by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), urged the government to pass key bills and also work on short-term tasks in four other areas: investment attractiveness, privatization of public services, entrepreneurs’ access to credit and tourism competitiveness.

These are necessary for the broader effort of strengthening the government’s fiscal position, stamping out corruption, improving the country’s competitiveness and creating jobs, the business group said.

“Historically, the greatest opportunities and leverage that a president has are during the first days of his administration,” the PCCI said.

“The first 100 days gauges a new President’s political will in effecting much needed reforms to jumpstart his administration’s programs.”

On top of the business group’s list is the need to improve the country’s image as an investment destination.

It recommended the staging of an investment roadshow to lure investors, housekeeping within the government to rally state agencies and harmonize policies, and also a streamlining of investment approval processes.

“[The] government should [also] zero in on a few priority strategic sectors on which to focus the bulk of their investment promotion and facilitation efforts,” the PCCI said.

The Board of Investments has drafted the first-ever Philippine Investment Promotions Plan wherein several investment promotion agencies committed to meet targets by focusing efforts on key sectors such as renewable energy and business process outsourcing.

The PCCI also called on the government to organize an ad hoc committee on competitiveness, made up of lawmakers, economic managers and business leaders, to advise Congress on a “legislative agenda for Philippine competitiveness.”

Legislative priorities, it added, should include:

* the rationalization of fiscal incentives;
* creation of the Department of Information and Communications;
* creation of the Department of Housing;
* provision of free patent to residential lands;
* strengthening of the freedom of access to information;
* fighting smuggling;
* reducing electricity rates by cutting the government royalty collected from generation companies;
* complying with OECD tax standards;
* establishing a national land use framework;
* laying down a antitrust policy;
* amending the Clean Air Act to provide increased flexibility; and
* guiding state agencies’ policies on water sourcing.

The PCCI went on to call for the fast-tracking of efforts to privatize certain public services, particularly power generation and transmission, water supply, road networks, airport development and flood mitigation.

“The new administration has to move further down the road to privatization, redefining the boundaries of the public and private sector; introducing competition where competition is possible. Privatization of critical sectors would improve efficiency, lower prices, and give better service to the average Filipino consumer,” it said.

To improve small enterprises’ access to credit, the PCCI said: “Since banks consider lending to this sector as too risky, a modified credit supervision scheme with the affluent within a community to serve as a ’Big Brother’ and a virtual co-maker of the lending process.”

It urged the government to focus on enhancing the tourism industry’s competitiveness by having the Tourism secretary conduct an immediate consultation with the private sector, putting in place a branding strategy for the country, and laying down a target of eight million foreign tourists by 2016.

“The document hopes to give government and other key sectors a sense of where business stands, and what we can all do to change our nation’s trajectory,” the PCCI said.

“It is along these lines of policy recommendations that we in the business sector give our blanket support to the incoming administration.” –JESSICA ANNE D. HERMOSA, Senior Reporter, Businessworld