POSSIBLE REVISIONS to a pending incentives rationalization bill have been submitted to the Senate by foreign businessmen bidding to have equity limits relaxed.
The Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC), in an Oct. 3 letter, urged legislators reviewing the proposed Consolidated Investments Incentives Code to simplify standards and expand the coverage of strategic industries as well as mechanisms to promote the entry of overseas businesses.
Senator Ralph G. Recto, chairman of the chamber’s ways and means committee, said he would be meeting with the JFC next week.
Among others, the foreign businessmen asked that the Board of Investments (BoI) take the lead in reviewing the Foreign Investment Negative List.
Doing so “will express the desire of the Congress to encourage more foreign investment and will establish the BoI as the leading government agency to study and recommend investment reform,” they claimed.
The JFC also requested the deletion of provisions on the employment of foreign nationals for export enterprises, noting that the Philippine Economic Zone Authority currently does not impose restrictions.
Another proposal involves Tourism department and Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) representation in the proposed Investment Promotion Action Center.
Several suggestions, meanwhile, identified provisions claimed as prone to misinterpretation.
The JFC recommended that the minimum capital needed to secure an investor’s visa be kept at the Foreign Investments Act-set $100,000, not the $150,000 proposed by the bill.
It also advised lawmakers to reiterate the Special Visa for Employment Generation rule mandated in Executive Order 758, which authorizes the issuance of the said document if at least 10 Filipinos are employed regardless of the venture’s investment value.
The inclusion of creative industries in the list of strategic investments allowed in economic zones was another recommendation.
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Source: Business World, Oct. 11, 2011
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