BRITISH Chamber of Commerce Philippines Executive Director and Trustee Chris Nelson made another call for the passage of three economic bills in October.
In a recent TV interview, Nelson shared the country’s Trade and Finance Departments’ sentiments regarding the economic bills, namely the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA), Public Services Act (PSA) and the Foreign Investments Act (FIA) as “being supportive to the [local] economy.”
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2020 data, the Philippines placed third-most restrictive out of 83 economies on the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Regulatory Board, and is considered the most limiting in Asean.
“This is not surprising as to why the Philippines has been registering only around 4-percent share of the annual FDI inflows into the…region in the past decade,” said Nelson.
The BCCP executive also noted the importance of timing in passing these bills, and urged that they be passed before the end of October, “because we’re cognizant that the elections are coming up. It will be a great boost [and] will allow us to promote [further in the United Kingdom].”
Recently, the Philippine Senate has approved the third and final reading of Senate Bill 1156, amending the Foreign Services Act. The changes will reduce the minimum number of direct hires for foreign companies to 15, allow 100-percent equity investment in select domestic-market enterprises, and allow complete ownership of small- and medium-sized enterprises.
The British Chamber said it “welcomes the significant developments to move the country forward at this unprecedented time and thus, strongly remains optimistic that all three bills will soon be passed in October.”