British chamber urges passage of 4 key bills

MANILA, Philippines — The British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (BCCP) is pushing for the passage of four legislative measures including the Cybersecurity Act and Digital Payments Act to boost investor confidence and drive economic growth.

Chris Nelson, executive vice chairman at BCCP told reporters that the group would continue to push for the approval of priority measures such as the Cybersecurity Act, Digital Payments Act, Open Finance Act and Blue Economy Act into law.

“I think what’s critically important here is we need to see legislation get passed. Legislation has slowed down in terms of passage,” he said.

A leadership shakeup and the impeachment proceedings have affected the Senate’s legislative output.

Nelson said the approval of legislative measures is important in enhancing investor confidence and promoting economic growth.

“That shows a signal to companies and investors that the economy is moving forward, that the legislation we want is important,” he said.

He cited the need to approve the Digital Payments Act amid the growing use of electronic payments.

“If you can move that through the government in terms of payment of fees and so forth, we speed up the process,” he said.

He said the passage of the Open Finance Act would help drive economic activity by enabling access to financial services.

“A number of your citizens, fellow citizens are unbanked or have limited access to finance. What the Open Finance Act would do is create more of a credit history (to) help you borrow,” he said.

He also emphasized the importance of approving the Cybersecurity Act into law to ensure that digital payments and sharing of consumers’ financial data are secure amid numerous phishing attacks and scams.

“Everyone gets them. Unfortunately, people still fall for it, right? So we need to have robust cybersecurity,” he said.

Given the country’s islands and ocean-based assets, he said the Blue Economy Act is another important legislative measure for resource development.

“We would really urge the government to pass those,” he said.