MAKATI CITY -- The country’s 19 Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) has agreed to use a collective branding and harmonized activities in promoting the Philippines as an investment destination choice in the Southeast Asian region.  

This, as the country’s IPAs, all members of the Philippine Investment Promotion Plan (PIPP), conducted its first face-to-face meeting recently (April 21, 2022) in Clark, Angeles City, Pampanga after two years of virtual coordination.  The Philippine Board of Investments (BOI), the country’s lead IPA which chairs both the Technical Working Group and Steering Committee organized the meeting. 

In the meeting, the IPAs agreed on communicating a single yet compelling message for its target audiences including foreign and local investors, supported by highlighting the investor-friendly laws now in place that is expected to attract more investments into the country namely the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE), the amended Foreign Investment Act (FIA), the Public Service Act (PSA), and the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA)—all of which are seen to help companies realize goals and grow their businesses.  

In the meeting, BOI Director Maria Rosario J. Dominguez introduced BOI Executive Director for Investments Promotion Evariste Cagatan as the new Chair of the PIPP-Technical Working Group. She underscored the important aspect of FIA including the creation of an Inter-Agency Investment Promotion Coordination Committee (IIPCC) which institutionalizes the PIPP as a group and formalizes the investment promotion activities of the IPAs.  Moving forward, the new Chair urged the IPAs to proactively work in promoting the Philippines and in developing the locations to be offered to investors. 

The growing investor confidence, as shown in the 2021 Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report, accelerated the pent-up demand for the PIPP face-to-face meeting. Based on the PSA data, the approved foreign investments last year increased by 71.5 percent, hitting Php192.34 billion from the 2020 level of Php112.12 billion. While in the fourth quarter alone, approved investments soared by nearly 270 percent to P133.47 billion from the P36.49 billion in the same period in 2020. 

These investment commitments were funneled through the BOI, BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Clark Development Corporation (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), and Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority. 

The meeting was attended by representatives from the following IPAs: Authority of Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), BOI,  CDC, Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC), John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC), Mindanao Development Authority(MinDA), PEZA,  Poro Point Management Corporation (PPMC), Bangsamoro Board of Investments, SBMA, Subic-Clark Alliance for Development (SCAD), and Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) / Mt. Samat Flagship Tourism Enterprise Zone (MSFTEZ). (BOI)