DAVAO CITY—The Bangsamoro autonomous region has welcomed the approval recently by President Duterte of the Investment Priorities (IPP) Plan 2020, which include the approved incentives for Islamic banking, and also listed the other priority investment areas for the region.
While the IPP mainly covers Covid-19 protective devices and medical equipment, the separate listing of priority investments in the BARMM would help the region rev up further its investment-ready areas in agriculture and related industries, such as agribusiness, aquaculture and fisheries, and infrastructure and services.
Mindanao has been pushing for the operation of Islamic banking, especially in and for the Moro-populated areas.
The country’s Islamic communities, a big concentration which are in Mindanao, due to its adaption of the core Islamic values. The General Secretarial of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference said “an Islamic bank is a financial institution whose status, rules and procedures expressly state commitment to the principle of Islamic Shariah and to the banning of the receipt and payment of interest on any of its operations.”
Multiple sources among Arab experts and quoted in Arabic financial websites and social media posting said this definition may be interpreted as banking operation that “avoids receipt and payment of interest in its transactions and conducting operations in a way that it helps achieving the objectives of an Islamic economy.”
The BARMM, however, is yet to refine the concept for Philippine application.
The regional Bangsamoro Board of Investments (RBOI), which handles the IPP in the BARMM and the dispensation of fiscal incentives for investors in the region, said the IPP also listed priority areas in the region also include basic industries, industrial service facilities, engineering industries, logistics and enterprises using the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) framework on trade and investments.
Also included are tourism; health and education services and facilities; halal industry and investment operations under Republic Act No. 11439 or An Act Providing for the Regulation and Organization of Islamic Banks, and energy.
The RBOI said the IPP is the government’s blueprint of priority economic activities that qualify for fiscal incentives. It said Memorandum Order No. 50 signed by the President on Thursday last week stated that the IPP covers the production, or manufacture of medicines, medical equipment and devices, personal protective equipment (PPE), surgical equipment and supplies, among others.
“However, the IPP also contains a list of priority investment areas for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.We worked hard with BOI Manila to include investment operations of Islamic banks in the BARMM list in the IPP, considering that the Islamic Banking Act was just passed and we hope that it will provide for more access to credit for SMEs [small and medium enterprises], particularly in the BARMM, which is the most underbanked region in the country,” said lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman of the RBOI.
“The BARMM administration under Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim is grateful to President Duterte for signing the IPP 2020 in light of the economic hardships brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added.
Ebrahim also filed on Thursday last week the region’s P75-billion budget for fiscal year 2021 or the proposed BTA (Bangsamoro Transition Authority)-Cabinet Bill No. 73.
Cabinet Bill No. 73 is titled “An Act Appropriating funds for the Operation of the Bangsamoro Government from January One to December Thirty-One, Two Thousand and Twenty-One, and for Other Purposes.”
“What makes this financial program distinct from last year are the inclusion of efforts towards the public health crisis and other significant initiatives that were not part of last year’s fiscal design,” Ebrahim said.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) will get P5.1-billion share in the budget proposal. The regional government targets to build additional 173 Barangay Health Stations (BHS) and 27 Rural Health Units (RHU).
An additional P500 allowance would be given to barangay health workers, along with another P3,000 for supplies of their respective BHS. The budget also allocates P30,000 to the RHUs for the same purpose.
The BARMM government would also get additional ambulances and P10 million each to MOH-supervised hospitals all over the region for necessary physical repairs or expansion. It also intends to provide more health personnel in all seven Covid-19 isolation centers across the region. This to help the local government in containing the spread of the virus.
The Office of the Chief Minister (OCM) has allotted P193.4 million for its Ayudang Medikal Mula sa Bangsamoro Government (Ambag) program to subsidize medical expenses of indigent Bangsamoro patients admitted or referred to partner hospitals. To date, there are 11 partner hospitals all over BARMM and nearby provinces, with more partners coming in next year, the BARMM Bureau of Public Information said.
The OCM’s Project Tabang (Tulong Alay sa Bangsamorong Nangangailangan) would continue its humanitarian efforts with P1.4 billion planned for various community support, including the plan to provide mobile clinics and floating ambulances for coastal towns.
The Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD) would get P3.3-billion share, with a large chunk allotted to its Emergency Assistance Program for grassroots interventions.
The biggest portion of the fiscal program would be allocated to the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE) with a proposal of P23.4 billion.
For 2021, the BAMM has anticipated the absorption of the schools and divisions located in the 63 barangays of North Cotabato and Cotabato City in the basic education sector. For the higher education sector, the proposal aims to put up four additional buildings to target colleges in the region.
Teachers would also be provided with P10,000 each for their professional trainings and seminars and a P5,000 extra allowance, higher than the national “chalk” allowance.
The fiscal program also presented an unprecedented P1.1-billion budget for the Madaris/Asatidz Program, or the program for its Arabic-language schools. Under the program, it would officially hire the Asatidz, or Islamic scholars, as part of the regional education workforce.
MBHTE is also geared to welcome around 2,000 scholars from families affected by the armed struggle through the Access to Higher and Modern Education (AHME) Scholarship Program.
The MOH is eyeing 25 Medicine scholars and 50 allied health related courses, with P14 million. The Ministry of Science and Technology has been allotted P26 million.