THE British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (BCCP) called for the immediate passage of the amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA), Foreign Investments Act (FIA) and the new Public Service Act (PSA).
BCCP Executive Director Chris Nelson, in an interview with The Manila Times, said they are hopeful that President Rodrigo Duterte, in his last State of the Nation Address (SONA), will urge Congress to pass these bills within the year.
The amendment to the RTLA seeks to remove some barriers for foreign retail investors interested to engage in retail trade in the Philippines. It also proposes to lower the paid-up capital for foreign retail enterprises from the current P120 million to P50 million.
The amendments to the PSA propose that public utilities be described and distinguished from public services. Public utilities can only have “natural monopolies” in the distribution and transmission of power, water and sewerage while amendments to the FIA eases rules on foreign businesses.
“Those are the three bills that we want to be highlighted [in the SONA]. Further, we would want to see further discussions on what projects will be completed during the final year of this administration and what further support may be given to the economy to get it back to the pre-pandemic level,” said Nelson.
The BCCP continuously promotes the Philippines as a good place to invest in but the country must reduce barriers to attract more investments.
“I think one of the things that have constantly expounded upon is the fact that we certainly want to flag the Philippines as a good place to invest in that it should be not only an entry to the Philippines but an entry to Southeast Asia,” said Nelson.
He said they also want to hear how the Philippines will support the digital economy as more workers shift to a work-from-home arrangement due to the pandemic.
“We have to highlight the advantages of the Philippines and reduce the barriers so we could get more companies to come in and use it not only to do business in the Philippines but also as a gateway to Southeast Asia, which is what we are trying to achieve,” he said.
