DTI chief expects influx of foreign investments

Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo is confident that the Philippines will be drawing more foreign direct investments this year given the country’s increasing competitiveness rating and desirability as an investment destination.

“Since the Aquino administration took over, we have made significant progress on many sides. A lot of it is anchored on the good governance agenda of the government. We have been working very hard in creating transparency, simple and clearer procedures and less red tape,” Domingo said in a statement.

He cited the Philippine Business Registry (PBR) as an example of the government’s effort to streamline business registration and eliminate red tape. This system integrated the processes in transacting with several government agencies to start operating a business, thus cutting down the registration time to as short as 30 minutes as against the previous process that took weeks to complete.

“We also have relatively stable labor cost. In fact, we now have cheaper labor cost than the coastal areas of China. So we have seen a lot of firms operating in China now moving some of their operations here,” Domingo added.

According to Domingo, further proof of the renewed confidence from the global community could also be seen in the influx of inbound investment missions early this year, which included those made by delegations from Qatar, Iran, Czech Republic, Germany, Kuwait and Turkey, as well as big Japanese companies like Toyota, Toshiba, Bank of Tokyo, Mitsubishi, Somitomo and Marubeni.

“There is so much interest in the Philippines right now,” Domingo said.

“Based on what I’ve seen on the ground, I think we’re going to exceed a gross domestic product growth of 7 percent,” he added.

The trade chief said the growing list of Filipino companies expanding overseas was a very good indicator of the country’s current and future competitiveness. These firms included San Miguel Corp., PLDT and the group of companies led by the country’s tycoons Lucio Tan, John Gokongwei and Henry Sy.

Domingo also listed other conditions contributing to country’s good investment environment such as the low inflation rate environment, good fiscal situation, improving infrastructure and strong banking system.