To bring more investors to Iloilo City, a member of the House Committee on Economic Affairs is pushing for the passage of a measure seeking to create the first Metro Iloilo Special Economic Zone and Freeport.
In House Bill 5794, or the proposed Metro Iloilo Special Economic Zone and Free Port Act of 2019, Iloilo City Rep. Jam Baronda said her proposal seeks to create a special economic zone and free port, and an authority to manage and direct its affairs in Iloilo City.
She said the proposed economic zone and free port will be the first in Western Visayas and the entire Visayas.
It will include the Iloilo International Port located in Barangay Loboc, La Paz and such available public; including, reclaimed lands in Barangays Bitoon and Balabago in Jaro District; and Barangays Hinactacan, San Isidro, Ingore and Loboc, located in Lapaz District, Iloilo City.
According to Baronda, the proposed Metro Iloilo Special Economic Zone and Freeport is a “critical and vital economic hub that will bring in positive change for City of Iloilo and for the entire Western Visayas though jobs generation and investments.”
“This vital piece of legislation is a major program under my HOPE [Health, Obra, Peace & Order, and Education] platform,” she added.
“I am committed to ensure the further economic development of Iloilo City. I am committed to bring more investors to Iloilo City. And I am committed to create more employment opportunities for Iloilo City. I made these commitments in the last elections,” Baronda added.
The bill, if enacted into law, the lawmaker said, will be a super economic booster for Iloilo City, for Western Visayas and even for the entire Visayas region.
“Our economy is doing good and we want to further boost it,” she said.
“I want Iloilo City to be the Silicon Valley of the Philippines and I want Iloilo to attract investments in information technology. I also want [to] invite investments, among others, in medical tourism, retirement villages, manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries processing, energy, service and export enterprises,” she added.
Baronda said that the Metro Iloilo Economic Zone and Freeport complements the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022.
“It intends to place regional development at the center of our socioeconomic development strategy. By creating more jobs, improving social services, encouraging innovation and connecting the countryside to growth centers, we will reduce poverty and accelerate development in rural areas,” she said.
“We have been dependent on the agriculture and services sectors all this time. Now, we want to expand and we want to diversify. We will welcome investors. We will offer them one of the best investment climates the Philippines can offer. The centerpiece of all that is the ecozone. And they can rely on the hardworking and intelligent Ilonggos, as others elsewhere in the Philippines and abroad had relied, and continue to do so,” she added.
Under the bill, a tax rate of 5 percent on gross income earned will be collected from the locators with no other local or national taxes to be imposed. The enterprises to be registered with the economic zone authority may enjoy the income tax holiday or the net operating loss carry over prior to the availment of the GIE. All fiscal incentives under the proposed law will be terminated after a cumulative period of 20 years from the date of registration, or the start of operation.
According to National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Western Visayas 2018 Socioeconomic Report, the employment rate in the region remained high in 2018 at 94.7 percent, with the unemployment rate slightly decreasing by 1.85 percent. The number of underemployed persons or employed persons, however, “who expressed desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job or to have a new job with longer working hours increased by 11.38 percent.”
The same report underscored that “the BPO industry, considered as one of the job generators for Western Visayas, employed 21,500 workers in Iloilo City. However, there is still a need to attract more investors especially along manufacturing areas in order to generate more employment opportunities and ultimately decrease the 18.6 percent unemployment rate.”
Baronda said Western Visayas registered slower growth in all sectors in 2018 with Agriculture, Fishery, Forestry decreased by 1.4 percent from 8.8 percent in 2017; Service decreased from 8.5 percent to 7.5 percent; Industry 8.7 percent in 2017, to 8.6 percent in 2018; although Manufacturing increased minimally from 4.1 percent to 4.7 percent, showed the Neda West Visayas 2018 Socioeconomic Report.