Firms urged to adopt inclusive business models

MANILA, Philippines–The Board of Investments (BOI) hopes to offer additional nonfiscal incentives to companies that will adopt “inclusive business” (IB) models or engage in activities that will ease the problems of the poor through the creation of jobs and income, and by providing affordable and relevant services to improve their quality of life.

“Apart from [providing] incentives, we’re looking at ease of doing business services. We could open a window in BOI where you can have faster processing if you have that kind of business model, or if you’re an accredited inclusive business enterprise. We will link this to other programs and services of the BOI,” said Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr.

“For instance, in shared services facilities, they can get priority for their community or their business. Other services can be provided in terms of training or technical assistance, which will be needed for these kinds of enterprises. From there, we will work on other government agencies.”

The trade official admits that the additional perks, so far, deal mostly with the trade facilitation aspect of doing business. The agency is still studying other potential perks that may be provided down the line.

The proposed inclusion of IB models in an enterprise may also become part of the roadmaps to be submitted to the BOI.

“We will see which industries can accommodate that kind of business model. The important thing now is the inclusive growth aspect,” Cristobal said.

The BOI will soon conduct test activities that will cover the housing, agribusiness and tourism sectors, he said. The accreditation process for businesses to be declared an IB enterprise is already being prepared. The agency, however, stressed that it could not require companies to adopt an IB model in running their day-to-day operations.

For now, the BOI is preparing the groundwork for the Asian Development Bank’s proposed $250-million job creation loan, which will build on the proposed inclusive business accreditation of the trade agency.