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BusinessMirror
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Monday, May 1, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 196
EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR
(2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 22 pages |
‘CREATE’S PERKS RULES TURNING OFF INVESTORS’
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By Andrea E. San Juan
PBBM: PHL economic security top focus with US
HE Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation, Inc. (SEIPI) is urging the government anew to revisit the incentives rationalization in the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE) law to avoid the diversion of expansionary plans from the Philippines to other Asian countries. As a recent example of such diversion, SEIPI President Danilo C. Lachica revealed that a battery manufacturer was “going to build an expansion in Asia.” However, he said, “Unfortunately they chose Malaysia instead of the Philippines.” Lachica said this has been the trend because of some parts of the incentives rationalization in the CREATE law that need tweaking. “I’ve been telling the Senate and the previous administration that the electronics industry today will not look like what we have today in nine years,” the
SEIPI chief told a recent forum organized by the Board of Investments (BOI). “Why 9 years? CREATE gave a 10-year transition period. We’re on the first year already and you can see that the [foreign direct investment] FDI winners are Vietnam and even India,” Lachica noted. In fact, he said, when the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), SEIPI’s partner in the US, met with cabinet-level officers, one of the issues raised was Asian countries’ performance in terms of foreign direct investments. See “Create’s,” A2
EXPLAINER »B4
WHY IS CHINA TRYING TO MEDIATE IN RUSSIA’S WAR WITH UKRAINE?
By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla
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PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, along with the administration’s economic team and business leaders, depart from Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on Sunday (April 30, 2023) en route to the United States. The President will be in the US until May 4, with a bilateral meeting with President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. on May 1 included in the official itinerary. PNA PHOTO BY ROLANDO MAILO
BORACAY TASK FORCE’S RETURN PITCHED By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo
@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror
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HE Department of Tourism (DOT) is pushing for the re-establishment of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) to oversee the management of the popular resort island. Sources who attended the stakeholders meeting on April 28 at Savoy Hotel with Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco separately told the BusinessMirror, “She shared that the Task Force will be revived and will finish the projects left over by the previous task force. She’ll probably recommend a stakeholder seat.” The DOT is just “waiting for the approval of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to reconstitute the task force,” said a government source familiar with the matter. As before, the task force will also be composed of
the DOT, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). The BIATF was set up in 2018 to oversee the rehabilitation of the island, which led to the latter’s closure for six months, from April 26. Its term ended in June 2022 with the supposed completion of the projects. But among the projects still remaining are the main road and drainage projects, the latter of which was supposed to have been completed by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) in 2019. Due to the pandemic and the turnover of some portions to the Department of Public Works and Highways for implementation, Tieza completion of the drainage project is delayed anew. (See, “Tieza to resume implementation of at least 82 LGU projects halted by coronavirus pandemic,” in the BusinessMirror, March 8, 2023.)
Clarification sought
STAKEHOLDERS also raised the possibility of increasing the island’s carrying capacity for tourists, which currently stands at 9,215 at any given time. Carrying capacity refers to an ecosystem’s ability to support people and other living things without negative effects. The carrying capacity was breached on three days during the recent Lenten break, similar to what happened in 2022. Stakeholders also sought the “revision or abrogation” of DENR Memorandum Circular 2018- 07, which mandates resorts with 40 or more rooms to establish a sewerage treatment plant (STP). A lready a controversial issue before its implementation, resort owners pointed out its redundancy “as we are presently disposing treated water to the concessionaires’ STP, which operates at only 50 percent of its capacity.” See “Boracay,” A2
RESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. is eyeing a stronger partnership with the United States (US) to ensure the country’s “economic security” during his bilateral meeting in US with Joe Biden on Monday. Marcos disclosed among the issues he will raise during the meeting are ways to boost the country’s “resilience” from economic threats such as global supply chain disruptions and economic coercion. Other matters he will also discuss in the bilateral talks are food security, agricultural productivity development, and digital economy, energy security, climate change, and cybersecurity. “Towards this end, one of my priorities for this visit is to push for greater economic engagement, particularly through trade and investment, and science, technology, and innovation cooperation, between the United States and the Philippines,” the president said in his departure speech at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City on Sunday. The President is scheduled to have his second face-to-face bilateral talk with Biden at the White House in Washington D.C. on May 1, 2023. Both state leaders had their first live bilateral meeting in September in New York. “My visit is an important one as they all are because they are part of our efforts to further reinforce our already strong bonds with the United States by bringing our alliance into the 21st century,” Marcos said. Marcos will remain in the US until May 4 to meet with other American business leaders as well as with the Filipino community in the US. Marcos pointed out among the industries where the country can have potential partnership with the US are semiconductor industry, critical minerals, renewable and clean energy, including nuclear, as well as digital telecommunication systems. “The economic team and I shall be joined by key Filipino private sector leaders in exploring business opportunities that would serve to grow our economy even more,” the President said.
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 55.7420 n JAPAN 0.4163 n UK 69.6552 n HK 7.1011 n CHINA 8.0548 n SINGAPORE 41.7543 n AUSTRALIA 36.9402 n EU 61.4667 n KOREA 0.0417 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.8618 Source: BSP (April 28, 2023)