The Board of Investments has tapped the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) for the conduct of a joint study that will identify which industries hold the most potential and can further boost economic activities in Luzon.
Specifically, the study, which began last month and will run up to March next year, will look at Central Luzon and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).
These two regions were selected as these were where economic and business activities were highly concentrated. Central Luzon and Calabarzon host several industrial zones and a number of logistics and infrastructure development projects, according to the BOI.
“While business activities and existence of infrastructure projects abound in Central Luzon and Calabarzon, there is a need for more comprehensive industrial policies and strategic infrastructure plans to maximize these regions’ potentials for growth and development,” Trade Undersecretary and BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said in a statement Thursday.
“The study is in line with President Duterte’s 10-point economic agenda, particularly in increasing the competitiveness of industries and easing the cost of doing business in the country to further attract foreign direct investments and businesses in the regions, provinces and cities,” Rodolfo added.
According to the BOI, the study will identify the potential industries that can play central roles in the development of such areas by analyzing the identified industries’ global value chain structure.
The study also seeks to identify the institutional and infrastructure bottlenecks that hamper the development of such industries and design concept plans to address and promote development and growth.
Jica senior representative Tetsuya Yamada meanwhile added that study would also complement the Transport Infrastructure Road Map Study for Mega Manila, which emphasized the “need to establish better North to South connectivity and appropriate hierarchy of different transportation modes such as roads, railways, and other mass transits to have globally competitive and environmentally sustainable cities.”
Once completed, the study is expected to produce a report that will contain relevant information on the said regions’ existing studies and policies on industrial development.
This should cover incentives, systems and regulations on land use and development of industrial zones, overall tax system related to special economic zones, and local government units (LGUs) incentives for investor, potential industries, and the distribution of population and the employment situation including labor concerns, foreign direct investments (FDIs), education system and human resource development (HRD), and current condition of existing infrastructure such as transport, power, telecom, logistics, water and sanitation, and waste management.