By: Roy Stephen C. Canivel – Reporter / @roycanivel_inq
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:30 AM April 26, 2022
The Philippines is ripe for more foreign direct investments from the United States, after the Duterte administration passed economic reforms that essentially made it easier for foreigners to do business here, an envoy said.
“Conditions that make the country conducive to US investments have come together. As a culture, we are highly adaptable but with new and amended business laws, we are opening the floodgates of opportunities,” said Jose E.B. Antonio, the country’s Special Envoy to the US for trade and investments.
He has enlisted the help of business groups Management Association of the Philippines, the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines, and the Harvard Business Club of the Philippines to entice American companies to come to the country.
Antonio’s optimism comes from the signing of the amended Public Service Act, which allows up to 100 percent foreign ownership of public services.
Other laws that support the government’s push to make the country a hotbed of US investments include the amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, which lowers the paid-up capital requirement for foreign retail enterprises.
As of now, foreign business groups are just awaiting the issuance of the implementing rules and regulations for the new economic liberalization laws.
“It’s time to pick up where we left off prepandemic when the country was experiencing uninterrupted growth for consecutive periods,” Antonio said. INQ