MANILA, Philippines – The Board of Investments (BOI) wants to remove what it calls a “nationality bias” in its current incentive system to allow the influx of more foreign investors in the country.

BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said the agency is in favor of a liberalized Philippine economy and as such it is pushing for providing perks to foreign companies who want to invest in the country even if they are not export oriented.

“They are actually allowed by the Constitution to manufacture here. The problem is they are not given incentives. That’s not right because these foreign investors are able to get incentives in Thailand, Vietnam so they manufacture there instead. As a result, we lose because we missed on potential local jobs,” he said.

At present, Rodolfo said the BOI is only allowed to give incentives to mostly domestic companies or those that have a maximum 40 percent foreign ownership, except for firms venturing into exports.

“For us it’s not only lowering corporate income tax but also modernizing the incentive system that we’re giving in the Philippines. So we would like to remove that export bias and that nationality bias because for us, given the strong growth of the Philippine economy, that’s actually the biggest attraction for companies to go here,” Rodolfo said yesterday.

“For us, nationality ownership of the company, nationality of the owners of the company should not matter. What should matter is that jobs are being created here in this country,” he added.

Rodolfo said there is clearly a positive momentum in the Philippines and such momentum should be taken advantage of in order to further elevate the country’s bilateral relationship with its economic partners.

The BOI serves as the industry development and investments promotion arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Source: http://www.philstar.com/business/2016/11/18/1644758/boi-pushes-removal-nationality-bias-perks