Review of investment priorities plan underway

MANILA, Philippines - The government has set into motion its plan to modernize the country’s blueprint for activities entitled to incentives.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the agency has started its review for the revision of the country’s Investment Priorities Plan (IPP).

“We’re working first on the basic framework. There is already an ongoing review on how we can modernize the incentive system. There are consultations being done now before we really craft the next batch of IPP,” Lopez said.

Lopez said the proposed amendment would seek to trim projects entitled to government incentives that are not useful and replace them with more relevant ones.

He said it would cover all industries, activities and projects covered by the current IPP.

“We will make it more relevant by removing those projects which are not useful,” Lopez said.

Among those activities which the Department of Trade and Industry is expected to pursue with Lopez at the helm is incentivizing Philippine firms which would incorporate an inclusive business model into their operations.

The DTI is looking at aligning industry incentive systems to prioritize companies that have integrated the inclusive business model into their businesses.

Inclusive business is a model that allows companies to engage poor and low-income communities as partners, customers, suppliers and employees in their supply chains.

The IPP is a list of activities entitled to government incentives. Preferred activities under the exiting list include manufacturing, agribusiness and fishery, services, economic and low-cost housing, hospitals, energy, public infrastructure, logistics and public-private partnership projects.

According to Lopez, the DTI hopes to come out with the first draft of the amended IPP before the end of the year.