Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, citing the March foreign direct investment (FDI) report, pressed the Duterte administration over the weekend to pursue immediate economic reforms.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs said the latest FDI report “strengthens our case for the need to reform the country’s relatively restrictive and less competitive economic policies.”
In a statement, Gatchalian cited data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which showed that the FDI net inflows in March 2019 declined by 13.9 percent to $586 million, from the $681 million recorded in the same month last year.
Meanwhile, he added, the latest United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s 2019 World Investment Report on special economic zones shows that while annual FDI flows to Southeast Asia went up 3 percent to a record $149 billion last year, inflows to the Philippines and Malaysia declined.
The senator recalled that during the 17th Congress, “we championed liberalization reforms that we believe would build an inclusive, efficient and competitive business environment in the Philippines. We pushed for measures including those amending the Foreign Investments Act of 1991, the Public Service Act, and the Retail Liberalization Act, among others.”
Unfortunately, Gatchalian rued that “we did not have the luxury of time to pass these bills before Congress adjourned sine die.”
Still, the senator struck a positive note, assuring that this coming 18th Congress which convenes on July 22, “we will be putting greater focus on implementing legislative reforms that will help break down barriers that foreign investors face in the country.”
He added: “These changes are long overdue—we need laws that are responsive to the needs of the domestic economy and accommodate the dynamics of the regional and global environment.”