In photo: British Chamber of Commerce Philippines Executive Director and Trustee Chris Nelson (File THEPHILBIZNEWS)
By Alithea De Jesus
As the government recently relaxes the alert level in the National Capital Region (NCR), business owners and companies are delighted with this move as more business establishments will be allowed to open and travel restrictions are eased up.
This welcome development is lauded by the British Chamber of Commerce Philippines and no less than BCCP Executive Director and Trustee Chris Nelson expressed his commendation with the decision of the government to lower the Alert level of restrictions in the National Capital Region (NCR) to Alert level 3.
In a TV interview, Nelson complimented the IATF for making the decision to relax restriction rules and travel curbs. Furthermore, the Chamber wishes that countries under the Philippines’ yellow list, particularly the UK, Europe, and the US will soon be moved on the green list.
More importantly, the British Chamber lauds the Congress for ratifying the bicameral report last month to amend the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, reducing the minimum paid-up capital to $500,00 for foreign investors. “We are very pleased about the progress, obviously it’s a certified urgent bill and it’s now with the President’s signature and we look forward to it being signed soon,” Nelson said.
According to BSP’s records in 2017, FDI inflows to the retail trade industry in ASEAN reached USD29.7 billion and the Philippines was only able to garner $USD83.1 million or 0.3% of the total FDI to ASEAN wholesale and retail trade. Nelson believes that the Philippines can attract more and could greatly benefit further through economic liberalisation efforts, referring to pending amendments on RTLA, PSA and FIA.
Once enacted into law, the British Chamber is eyeing to extensively promote the development in the UK to attract retail investors. “We already have lined up efforts on how to promote it in the UK, through our partnership with various UK Chambers, UK’s Department of International Trade and Philippines’ Trade and Investment in London,” Nelson said.
He also recognized the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) as an important trading bloc for the Philippines, as the UK expressed interest in joining the group as well. Nelson identified the country’s manufacturing and the business sector could participate in global production networks, which could lead to a further increase in competitiveness.
Overall, the British Chamber believes that the economic recovery of the Philippines is in the right direction and optimistic that the economy to further improve in the final quarter of the year due to the government support and relaxation of COVID curbs to spur economic activity.
