Business groups seek urgent action from government

MANILA, Philippines — Business groups want the government to take urgent action on measures including the proposed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) law as well as the vaccination program to address the pandemic and achieve recovery.

Speaking at the virtual roundtable discussion of Stratbase ADR Institute yesterday, Makati Business Club (MBC) chairman Ed Chua said the private sector wants the government to seriously consider and implement measures to help the country get back up from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the sense of urgency does not seem to be there as he noted that the proposed CREATE, which seeks to reduce the country’s corporate income tax rate and rationalize fiscal incentives, for instance, has yet to be signed into law.

Even after the measure is approved into law, he said implementing rules and regulations would still have to be crafted before it could take off.

“I am hoping this crisis provides that sense of urgency. As I said, our government normally responds to crises. If there is no crisis, we’re quite slow. If there is a crisis, normally, they respond fast. But we still have not seen as much of that. There is a lot of work going on, but results are not showing,” Chua said.

Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said in the same event that the group is also pushing for enactment of CREATE to enable the country to attract more investments.

He said the group also supports proposed amendments to the Public Service Act and the Magna Carta for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to free Small Business Corp. from regulatory accountability under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in order to  expand MSME lending, as well as amendments to the charter of the Philippine Ports Authority to help reduce shipping costs.

“These proposals should be taken as a package as they would be addressing various aspects of business operations toward recovery,” Ortiz-Luis said.

Management Association of the Philippines president Aurelio Montinola III, in the same event, said the group wants to see everyone vaccinated to allow the economy to bounce back from the impact of pandemic.

For this to be achieved, he said it is necessary for everyone to be educated and informed of the benefits of vaccination.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Benedicto Yujuico said efficient vaccination would be key to economic recovery.

Moving forward, he said the private sector and the government should look for ways to assist sectors such as food, construction and infrastructure, business process outsourcing, education, health and wellness, and even mining which have strong potential for growth.

He said innovation would also be important in supporting economic growth.

“We can do this by teaching youth on technology so we can capitalize on the young and educated population. We need to capitalize on demographic dividend. We need young people trained and educated on technology. We need to get MSMEs to embrace technology and attain sustainability of business. Everyone needs to innovate,” he said.