By Alithea De Jesus
As the country moves to the last quarter of the year with the pandemic continually disrupting businesses, and some were forced to close down due to the volatility of the situation and at the same time dilly-dallying public health guidance for operations and other government regulations that change in a wink.
Consequently, this led to abrupt closures and inconsistent reopenings of many businesses and kept business owners and investors guessing as to what would be the next step to take.
Mindful of what is going on in the country, as well as the struggle of the government to enforce policies that strike the perfect balance between lives and livelihood, the European Chamber of Commerce Philippines shared their idea of how to help the government in finding solutions to the ongoing crisis.
In its recently concluded two-day European-Philippine Business Summit 2021, co-organized and supported by all European Chambers, many critical key topics were discussed to further strengthening European-Philippine trade and investments relations and plans to create a more resilient Philippine economy.
During day two of the event, the British Chamber’s Executive Director and Trustee, Chris Nelson, moderated one of the panel discussions. Go Negosyo Founder Joey Concepcion, NTF Strategic Communications Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor, Sanofi Philippines General Manager for Pharmaceuticals Dr. Amal Makhloufi, and Roche’s General Manager for Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos Farid Bidgoli were among the esteemed panelists.
During one of the panel discussions, Asec. Mayor expounded on the actions currently being taken by the government. “I think there is an improvement already in the restrictions we are imposing here in the Philippines,” Asec. Mayor stated. He emphasized that the Philippine government is now focusing its efforts on appropriately implementing granular lockdown measures, where instead of locking down big areas, the restrictions will be focused on smaller spaces such as a street or a barangay where the COVID patient or surge is present. This measure is being undertaken now to prevent drastically limiting people’s movement and to keep businesses operational.
More importantly, Joey Concepcion also briefly mentioned the possibility of vaccination certificates from other countries being accepted upon entrance to the Philippines.
The EU has begun the digitization of vaccination certificates in an effort to make people’s mobility during the pandemic safer and more efficient. The EU Digital COVID Certificate, as it is called, will now serve as a COVID pass for all traveling European citizens making trips easier and reducing expensive costs. The UK has also been utilizing the NHS app which shows a person’s vaccination or Lateral Flow Test status. Those visiting an event or venue in England are now able to show their COVID-19 status easily through the app.
The British Chamber is fully supportive of the measures to safely reopen the economy to move forward. The granular lockdowns allow mobility for the vaccinated people as much as possible and keep businesses open while simultaneously addressing the concern for safety from the pandemic.
Overall, the Chamber wishes to see more straightforward measures, supported by research, be proposed and undertaken by the government to support the Philippines in becoming an investment-attractive and pandemic-resilient economy.
