Gov’t assures investors of protection

Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/Philippine Daily Inquirer

The country’s trade chief has assured investors of full support and protection under the present administration, an attempt to appease businesses following the controversial remarks made by President Duterte in China last week.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez stressed that the current business environment would remain stable as companies could still freely set up their operations here, hire from the local talent pool and do business in the country.

In the case of the IT-business process management (IT-BPM) industry, Lopez said he was willing to sit down with the group to assure them that American businesses, as with the rest of the foreign investors here, would enjoy the same kind of protection that they have seen in the past years.

Malacañang also assured American call center firms operating in the country that only the military drills between Filipino and American soldiers would be affected by President Duterte’s plan to distance itself from the United States.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the President was open to holding a dialog with members of the IT-Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) to explain that the President has no plans of cutting military or economic ties with the US, its biggest military and economic partner and source of remittances.

“This (dialog) is to reassure the industries that the separation is not a severance of economic ties. We just like to clarify that it mainly refers to the (military) exercises we have 25 more small exercises and three major exercises but all the treaties remain in place,” he said.

Abella added that the President would schedule a meeting with the IBPAP members where he would like to explain why the country needed to separate from its dependence on the US and Western nations.

“I can meet with them. We can put forward their concerns to the President, who has assured that the investment policy in the Philippines remained intact and solid. All economic considerations in investing here are still here and they are not going to change,” Lopez said.

“The (IT-BPM) industry is a big industry and we need to listen to them. But this early, we’re saying that nothing has changed in the country’s economic environment. I guess they heard about the President’s strong statements and maybe that’s where they are concerned. But I’m assuring them that all businesses here will be protected definitely. This is part of our economic development. We have to protect those investments,” the trade chief explained.

Lopez pointed out that what the administration simply meant about the separation with the US was that it wanted the Philippines to remain neutral and independent of outside influence when crafting its policies.

“When it comes to economic policy, we are in sync with the US’ trade reform measures, and that’s why in terms of trade and industry, we don’t have any issue. But it’s different when it comes to other policies,” he added.

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