AmCham backs PEZA law revision By Andrea E. San Juan
T
HE American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) said it is pushing for the amendment of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) law to allow PEZA-registered business enterprises (RBEs) to adopt a more permanent work-fromhome (WFH) arrangement. AmCham Executive Director Ebb Hinchliffe revealed to reporters at the sidelines of the Arangkada Forum press briefing on Thursday that the “usual suspects” in
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terms of attracting foreign direct investments (FDIs) are high energy cost, labor cost, ease of doing business, and corruption. However, Hinchliffe put the spotlight on the issue of paper transfer of registration from PEZA to BOI to adopt up to 100 percent WFH arrangement, noting that all members of the foreign chambers in the Philippines are dealing with this issue. “We’re a little concerned . . . I think all of our members are dealing with the current BOI versus PEZA issue because that’s a big one—the
WFH issue. We got to really ...one of my priorities is get the PEZA bill, [Corporate Recovery and Tax incentives for Enterprises] CREATE bill revised so that it allows WFH ..that’s a very top priority,” Hinchliffe stressed. With this, he said the AmCham is pushing for the amendment of the PEZA law “absolutely as fast, as hard as we can.” “That’s part of what I was saying about getting the budget down early, getting [Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership] RCEP out of the way, we don’t have to miss that in January. In
January, we start revising the PEZA bill to allow WFH,” Hinchliffe said. He added that the current PEZA law needs to be amended to put a stop to the “continued rift” on the workfrom-home arrangement. “We’re trying to ...the current investors here... the [business process outsourcing] BPO industry in particular are saying ‘ok that won’t affect the manufacturing, it only affects financial service companies and they want work from home and this bill won’t allow it.’” See “AMCham,” A2
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10-MO N.G. BORROWINGS SLIDE BY A FIFTH TO P2.05T
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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
@jearcalas
HE national government’s total gross borrowings from January to October declined by a fifth on an annual basis to P2.05 trillion, latest Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data showed.
The end-October total borrowings was P698.683 billion lower than the P2.75 trillion recorded in the same period of last year. The 10-month gross borrowings is nearly 93.18 percent of the P2.2trillion total borrowing target set by the national government this year. BTr data showed that the bulk of the amount borrowed by the national government as of endOctober consisted of gross domestic borrowings that reached P1.578 trillion. The amount was 29.22 percent lower than the P2.23 trillion recorded during the 10-month period of 2021.
The lion’s share of gross domestic borrowings during the reference period came from Fixed Rate Treasury Bonds at P1.038 trillion, followed by Retail Treasury Bonds at P878.248 billion. There was also a net debt redemption on Treasury Bills amounting to P338.439 billion, as more debts were repaid than borrowed. Data from the BTr also showed that gross foreign borrowings in the January-to-October period declined 9.072 percent to P471.655 billion from P518.714 bil lion recorded in the same period of last year. See “N.G. borrowings,” A2
BSP CHIEF JOINS CONCERNED GROUPS ON MAHARLIKA FUND By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo
@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror
C
ONCERNED Filipinos are adding their voices to economists and Philippine officials, who have expressed their opposition to the proposed legislation, creating a P250-billion sovereign wealth fund, now being rushed for approval in the House of Representatives. A petition on Change.org titled, “Hands off our SSS and GSIS contributions, NO
TO House Bill 6398!” already picked up 16,121 signatures as of press time, exceeding its initial target of 15,000. The petition is picking up steam as it tries to reach a new goal of 25,000 signatories. This developed as Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Felipe Medalla was cool to the idea of creating the Maharlika Wealth Fund (MWF), as proposed in House Bill 6398, warning of the dangers of another 1MDB scandal in the making.
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.3180
See “BSP chief,” A2
NO MORE QUEUES Passengers leaving the country via Terminal 1 and 2 will have the ease of entering the airport without dealing with a long line as preliminary X-rays are removed. The Airport Security Committee (ASC) and its various stakeholders decided to remove the initial screening amid complaints about the long time it takes for departing passengers to enter the airport. There will be only one security check and this is the final check at the NAIA terminals. NONIE REYES
Inflation, weak demand a drag on growth till ’23 Q2 By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
H
IGH inflation and weak external demand will cast a dark cloud over the country’s economic growth prospects until the second quarter of next year, according to Oxford Economics. In its latest Asia Pacific: Macro Snapshot, Oxford Economics said the Philippine economy’s growth may have peaked in the third quarter and is already expected to slide in the last quarter of this year.
The dark spell of inflation will reduce domestic consumption, the primary driver of the Philippine economy. Weak external demand, meanwhile, which stemmed from tighter financial conditions being felt worldwide, will also negatively affect the economy. “In the Philippines, consumer spending unexpectedly surged— with the boost to incomes from reopening outweighing the impact of higher inflation. But we still expect growth momentum to slow across the board in Q4 (fourth quarter)
2022 and H1 (first semester) 2023 as external demand weakens and domestic demand is constrained by relatively high inflation and tighter financial conditions,” Oxford Economics said. In terms of commodity prices, Oxford Economics said the Philippines along with Japan and Vietnam have been plagued by high food price inflation. Nonetheless, it said, pressures from energy prices, weakening currencies, and supplychain issues have already eased. But, a concern, according to Ox-
ford Economics, is that most Asia and the Pacific economies are still operating below capacity and that “inflation expectations have generally stayed well-anchored.” Monetary authorities in the Asia and the Pacific region have been raising policy rates and continued these actions through November. But the responses differ from those who chose to follow in the footsteps of the US Federal Reserve and those who chose to chart their own paths. See “Inflation,” A2
n JAPAN 0.4164 n UK 69.0290 n HK 7.2393 n CHINA 7.9827 n SINGAPORE 41.6153 n AUSTRALIA 38.3469 n EU 59.2803 n KOREA 0.0432 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.9822
Source: BSP (December 2, 2022)