Ecozones for domestic enterprises planned

The domestic economic zones that the government is planning to set up will do away with minimum investment requirements for locators, to encourage small businesses to take advantage of the incentives given to ecozone locators.

In a recent interview, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Lilia de Lima said the rules governing ecozones for domestic companies were still being fine-tuned.

What was certain, however, was that the minimum investment requirement imposed on export-oriented ecozone locators would be waived for domestic ecozone investors, she said.

However, she said domestic ecozone locators would have to strictly comply with environmental and labor laws.

“There will be no minimum investment requirement, but we will strictly monitor them to ensure that they do not degrade the environment and that they respect labor laws,” De Lima said.

Since the barriers to entry were not that high, De Lima said domestic ecozone investors would also not be entitled to the same incentives—mostly tax holidays—that export-oriented ecozone investors enjoyed.

At the beginning of the year, the Department of Trade and Industry proposed the establishment of ecozones for domestic enterprises, mainly to spur economic activity in areas with otherwise sluggish economies.

Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said in an earlier interview that these domestic ecozones would be similar to the PEZA ecozones, which provided various perks to locators and made setting up shop less of a hassle.

While they would not be given tax holidays, Domingo said locators inside a domestic ecozone would be free from local government regulations.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Francis Chua earlier said that one of the business sector’s biggest concerns was the non-alignment of some local government regulations with national laws.