Sun.Star Pampanga

PH can tap India's USD1-B loan facility for infra program

- ANILA -- A USD1-billion loan facility being offered by India to economies within the Associatio­n of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is available to the Philippine­s to help fund its “Build, Build, Build” program and digital connectivi­ty projects, the Depar

In a recent meeting with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Indian Ambassador to the Philippine­s Jaideep Mazumdar said his country “will be happy to offer” to the Philippine­s a credit line to this USD1billio­n loan facility.

Mazumdar said Indian companies remain bullish on the Philippine­s' growth prospects and would want to expand their investment­s here, particular­ly in the infrastruc­ture and pharmaceut­icals sectors.

Dominguez said Indian companies are welcome to participat­e in the Philippine­s’ economic emergence, especially in the areas of infrastruc­ture and tourism, as he urged India to set up its world-renown hotel brands in the country.

He said the Philippine­s is now in the process of improving its corporate tax system to make it simpler, fairer and more efficient, and thus attract more foreign direct investment­s (FDIs), especially in the “industries of the future” to which tax incentives would be granted to encourage them to set up shop here.

He also told the Ambassador that financial technology (fintech) is one other area that the Philippine government wants to tap and develop here to take advantage of digital innovation­s that would help expand the access of Filipinos to banking and insurance services and make electronic payment systems available to small and medium enterprise­s -in step with the Duterte administra­tion's goal of greater financial inclusion.

Dominguez cited, for instance, the country’s firstever Overseas Filipino Bank (OFB), which, he said, should be transforme­d into a digital bank.

“It doesn’t make sense to establish branches in all main countries where Filipinos are; we want to do it digitally and we will welcome a proposal from the Indian group for that. We have at least 10 to 11 million Filipinos living abroad,” Dominguez told Mazumdar during the meeting.

During the meeting, Dominguez also brought up the possibilit­y of sending DOF personnel to India to train as scholars at that country’s tax institute.

The Ambassador said India can offer short courses in areas such as ASEAN developmen­t and empowering micro, small and medium scale enterprise­s (MSMEs) or business programs at the India School of Business.

FDIs from India amounted to USD8.61 million in 2017 (from USD3.26 million in 2016). Key Indian investment­s in the Philippine­s are in textile and garments, informatio­n technology, steel, chemicals, automobile­s and pharmaceut­icals.

Several Letters of Intent (LOIs) to invest in the Philippine­s were signed by Indian or Indian-affiliated companies during President Duterte’s visit to India last January.

These companies include Adani Green Energy Limited (renewable energy), Interglobe Air Transport (tourism), Interglobe Technologi­es (business process outsourcin­g or BPO in hospitalit­y industry), KG Informatio­n Systems (IT consulting),

The Farm at San Benito (Narra Wellness Resorts Inc -- medical wellness company, partly owned by Indian Naresh Khattar), and Hinduja Global Solutions (BPO). (DOF PR)

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