The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte its proposed list of programs and policy reforms it hopes the current administration will act on.
The list presented to Duterte during the 42nd Philippine Business Conference and Exhibition on October 13 highlights the group’s resolutions in 10 areas—transportation; ease of doing business; taxation; information and communications technology (ICT); energy and power; agriculture; industry; tourism; education; and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) financing.
On transportation, PCCI is urging the transfer of accreditation and supervision of sea freight forwarders from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) of the Department of Transportation (DOTr). This would place all freight forwarders under DoTr. (Airfreight forwarders are already under an attached agency of DoTr, the Civil Aeronautics Board.)
For years, freight forwarders have pushed for the transfer of all transportation services to the supervision of the transport department. The previous government had made an attempt but failed to complete the transition within its term.
The group also urged the national government to make a definitive decision about opening within the next six years other major international airports located in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Such a decision will help decongest air traffic at the main gateway Ninoy Aquino International Airport, prepare the country to receive 20 million foreign tourists in the medium term, and leapfrog to fifth place among top tourist destinations in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by 2025.
For ICT, the Senate and House of Representatives were urged to amend Republic Act 7295 (Public Telecommunications Policy of the Philippines) to create open access—or the separation of physical infrastructure from service provision—in telecommunications. PCCI said this means identifying the various segments in the infrastructure and opening them up to more players without requiring a congressional franchise.
The group said it also supports the comprehensive tax reform initiatives of the Department of Finance as well as the committees on ways and means of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The group, however, asked DOF and Congress to consider a special simplified tax regime for MSMEs in the tax reform packages. Also requested are a lower tax rate, simplified tax base determination, and simplified filing and payment processes to encourage micro and small businesses to register and pay taxes at least cost and inconvenience.
While it supports the national government’s effort to achieve sustainable and reliable power supply at a competitive cost, PCCI urged the issuance of an executive order supplementing the Electric Power Industry Restructuring Act (EPIRA) and empowerment of the Department of Energy (DOE) to take a strong leadership role and accountability in achieving the objectives of the law. PCCI noted that Section 37 of EPIRA has relegated DOE to the role of mere development planning and monitoring instead of providing leadership and implementation.
PCCI is also requesting the national government, through the Department of Budget and Management, to increase the budget of DTI “in order that it can fully and effectively carry out its function of promoting Philippine trade and industries and generating investments and in the process create jobs and raise incomes for Filipinos.”
The business group likewise requested both houses of Congress to adopt flexible lending policies and allow the use of government funds for MSME lending.
In education, a resolution was agreed urging the government to enact a comprehensive law harmonizing the different laws on Technical Vocation Education and Training and Dual Training (DT), and come up with a better incentive mechanism to encourage enterprise participation in DT programs.
Along with this, PCCI hailed the national government’s efforts to improve the climate for doing business, including its programs on harmonizing policies and procedures, automating business processes and licensing systems, and reducing the processing period for such permits and licenses to a maximum of three days across all national and local government agencies and local government units.
On agriculture, the group said it backs the government’s direction towards food self-sufficiency and security through increasing interventions in agri-fisheries and high-value crops development programs and accelerating support for the rice production program within the next two years.
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