Biz urged to modernize
THE Board of Investments (BOI) urged investors to upgrade and modernize their businesses including those in the manufacturing, agriculture, information and communications technology (ICT), and the logistics sectors.
During the 2017 Regional Business and Climate Summit held at Pinnacle Hotel and Suites last Tuesday, September 12, Department of Trade and Industry – Board of Investments (DTI-BOI) Chief for Research and Policy Division Raquel Echague said their department has previously laid out the 2017 Investments Priority Plan (IPP). Investors whose business fall under the priority investments of the country are given incentives including a 6-year exemption of corporate tax for pioneering companies and 4-year corporate tax exemption for nonpioneering companies.
To fully maximize the incentives the businesses are getting, Echague said it would be better if the industries push for innovation and upgrade of their businesses in order to generate value-adding products and additional employment.
“What we want for agriculture is for the bananas and other crops to be of higher value. What else can be done for bananas, mango, and coconuts that will undergo processing? If there’s processing, there is additional investment and employment. The value chain increases,” said Echague.
She cited as an example the products made out from mangoes such as mango purees and dried mangoes that are currently being exported to other countries, although she said DTI does not discourage export of fresh bananas as the Philippines is among the top exporter of bananas nationwide.
Echague also said that with the upgrade of agriculture into processing and value-adding, it in return helps develop the manufacturing sector.
“We want to have more investments in manufacturing because this is where we can employ more people whether skilled or nonskilled,” she said.
Echague said BOI is aligning their priority investments with the K-12 program wherein even high school graduates are already equipped for employment. Because of this, the manufacturing sector remains to be one of the priority investment areas for the year.
As for the ICT sector, she said the Philippines is already the leading provider of voice services including call center and customer assistance services.
“It would be better if for our business process outsourcing, we upgrade to software development. We are more on the call center and voice. We are #1 in voice but not yet in non-voice. Filipinos are basically creative. We would want ICT to have a higher value here,” she said.
Echague cited animation as an example adding that some of the animators of the Walt Disney Company are actually Filipinos.
“We are providing incentives for those companies that will train. We call it modernization of the services. We want to give incentives to the investments of the companies that will teach and train their employees. This is also true for shipping because there are a number of ships sinking nowadays. We want the seafarers to be trained, not just the basic training but those with international recognition as well,” Echague said.