CP Group investing $2.5B in PHL farm tech By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla
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HAI business giant Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) announced last Tuesday its plans to invest US$2.5 billion in agricultural technology development in the country. CP Group officials made the commitment during their meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Malacañang last Tuesday. Under its expansion plans and business integration in the Philippines, the CP Group plans to invest $2.5 billion from 2023 to 2027, covering swine ($1.3 billion), poultry ($280 million), shrimp ($800 million), and food ($120 million).
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In November, the CP Group announced plans to increase its existing $2-billion agriculture investments in the Philippines on aquaculture industry, as well as in rice and swine production. Marcos assured them the government will provide help to the CP Group as it “rolls out its plans and programs,” especially as the country is facing several agriculturerelated issues including its aging farmers, emergence of swine and avian flu, among others. “During the meeting, the company officials requested government assistance in locating suitable land covering 400 hectares for aquaculture [shrimp] and 300 hectares for swine and poultry, including eggs,” the Presidential
Communications Office (PCO) said in a statement.
Competitive agriculture
THE Thai conglomerate also committed to modernize the local agriculture sector by providing state-of-the-art technology and training on modern farming to young Filipinos. Marcos hopes this will allow the Philippines to “catch up” with other food exporting countries by boosting the country’s agriculture production. “We’re very impressed with the new technologies that you use. I remember you told me that each plant farm you build is different from the last one because you immediately incorporate and adopt new tech-
niques in technology,” Marcos said. “Learning new things and applying new things, that’s the only way I think to compete as well. CP Group has done so well...to be a state-of-the-art company,” he added. Among those present in the meeting were CP Group chairman Soopakij Chearavanont, CPF Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prasit Boondoungprasert and other executives from both CP Group and the Charoen Pokphan Foods Public Company Limited (CPF). The CP group is the largest private company in Thailand, with several affiliates including the CPF and the Charoen Pokphand Foods Philippine Corporation (CPFPC).
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IMF AIDING PHL ON WAYS TO BOOST LOW VAT COLLECTION
VAT drive missing ₧539B–DOF By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
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DA’s 4 new agri-fishery projects cost ₧65.3B
@jearcalas
INANCE Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno on Tuesday said the government is collaborating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on how to boost the country’s value added tax (VAT) collection, which currently stands at 40 percent, the lowest in Southeast Asia.
Citing a World Bank study, Diokno explained that the government is losing some P539-billion revenues because of the country’s low VAT efficiency ratio. On an average, the national government collected P723 billion in VAT from 2016 to 2020, which is just half of the P1.307-trillion potential full revenue collections of the government, Diokno added. Diokno attributed the low VAT collection to “too much” exemptions extended by laws, such as those being enjoyed by cooperatives. “So while we, the Philippines, has the highest VAT rate compared to the other countries in this part of the world, our VAT collection is the most inefficient,” he said in a virtual briefing on Tuesday. “If perfect, it should be 100 percent, but we are only able to collect 40 percent and that is because of a lot of exemptions,” he added. See “VAT,” A2
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CLEANUP Workers of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) conduct cleanup operations at Talayan creek along Araneta Avenue, Quezon City, on May 30, 2023. In anticipation of the rainy season, the MMDA has been actively clearing waterways across all 16 cities and municipalities of Metro Manila. Truckloads of waste have been removed from creeks and lateral drains, thanks to the efforts of the MMDA. The public is encouraged to support these efforts by refraining from littering and promptly reporting any clogged waterways to the MMDA. NONOY LACZA
SEIPI KEEPS 5% GROWTH GOAL DESPITE Q1 DECLINE By Andrea E. San Juan
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HE Sem iconduc tor a nd Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (SEIPI) is keeping its 5-percent growth target for 2023 despite the 15.29-percent decline in electronics exports in the first quarter of 2023. While SEIPI President Danilo C.
Lachica said the electronics industry does not “react” on a monthly or quarterly basis in terms of exports, he said, “We’re still eyeing for 5-percent growth for this year. So we’ll catch up.” “Everything including ‘yung components, integrated circuits …bumaba siya [they went down]. But we’re not changing our 5-percent forecast. Maybe [as] ballpark,
close to 5 percent but for now we just had a board meeting two weeks ago, and we’re still maintaining that number,” Lachica told reporters on the sidelines of the 5th Anniversary Signing of Republic Act No. 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, and establishment of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA)
on Monday. Data from the SEIPI website showed that from January to March 2023, electronics exports declined by 15.29 percent, from US$11.77 billion in 2022 to US$9.97 billion in 2023. This, SEIPI noted, is equivalent to 59.12 percent of the total Philippine exports. See “Seipi,” A2
HE Department of Agriculture (DA) has touted the benefits from its four new internationally-funded projects for the agri-fishery sector worth P65.3 billion. “These are only a few of the many steps being taken by the DA towards a productive, globally competitive, and prosperous Philippine fisheries industry,” DA Undersecretary for Administration and Finance Agnes Catherine Miranda said at the 2023 National Farmers’ and Fisherfolk’s Month (NFFM). With a total amount of P65.3 billion, these projects are; the Adapting Philippine Agriculture to Climate Change (APA), the Philippine Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency Project (FishCoRe), the Scaled-up Philippine Rural Development Project (PR DP), and the Mindanao Inclusive Agriculture Development Project (MIADP). During the opening ceremony of the Fisheries Week, Miranda also hailed the successes of the country’s fisheries industry. “The latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that our fisheries subsector contributed 54.32 billion pesos to our total agri-fishery production value for January to March 2023,” she said. “It even showed a slight increase of 0.3 percent annually as an effect of the production value boost in the squid, tilapia, and blue crab industries,” the undersecretary added. See “DA’s,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 55.9860 n JAPAN 0.3988 n UK 69.1987 n HK 7.1518 n CHINA 7.9182 n SINGAPORE 41.3700 n AUSTRALIA 36.5980 n EU 59.9722 n KOREA 0.0423 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.9296 Source: BSP (May 30, 2023)