27 BOI-registered firms to invest more in RP

MANILA, Philippines - The Board of Investments (BOI) announced that 27 BOI-registered firms will be investing further in the country and is committed to undertake 32 expansion projects.

The expansion plans of these BOI firms were known as a result of the agency’s ongoing Strategic Investor Aftercare Program (SIAP).

The Strategic Investor Aftercare Program (SIAP), the centerpiece platform of the Board of Investments (BOI) to retain existing investors posted a remarkable performance in 2009 as it tackled investments-related issues and concerns.

Details for the additional investments are not yet available.

For 2009, efforts continued in stepping up company participation and by reaching out to potential and strategic partners in the industry, the IASD targeted 200 SIAP participating firms.  The SIAP Team was able to visit 95 companies or 48 percent of the intended target. The visits resulted in identifying possible investment leads in various sectors.

On issues involving other government agencies, the SIAP was able to address 94 out of the 131 issues raised by investors for a resolution rate of 72 percent. Issues dealt mostly on visa, value added tax (VAT), tax credit certificate (TCC), tedious procedures, smuggling, red tape, single window transaction and duties and taxes. Some challenging issues continue to be explored since its probable solutions are long-term in nature while other fixes possibly require legislations.

The BOI SIAP was crafted in response to the recommendation of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank to provide an investment aftercare program as a core function in investments promotion.

SIAP had its beginnings in the early part of 2007 under the BOI One-Stop Action Center (OSAC) which was also part and parcel of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) function to provide essential services to investors. It went full throttle as an institutionalized mandate in June 2008 when the BOI itself underwent a reengineering to focus more on investment promotions.