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Philippines: Economic managers push for changes in Constitution to attract more investors
MANILA, Philippines — The country’s economic managers are pushing for amendments in the Constitution to allow for more foreign investors, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said while the government has done as much as it can administratively to ease restrictions on foreign investments, there are still parts of the Constitution that limit their entry to the country.
“Since the beginning of the administration, the President has been very vocal about opening up the economy and we have done it in all the administrative ways we are allowed to do by our Constitution. We are opening up as much as we can administratively,” Dominguez said during the 9th Business Forum of the Manila Times.
“Now, there are portions of our Constitution that still limit the opening up of foreign investments. We are working on getting a proposal to Congress so that we can hold a Constitutional Convention, not so much to focus on the political side (which takes up all the headlines in newspapers) but actually on the more important part, which is opening up of investments,” he added.
In an interview later with reporters, Dominguez said the economic team is reviewing the draft Constitution approved by the House of Representatives last December.
“They passed a legislation in the House about the constitutional changes. They did already, so we’re reviewing it,” he said.
However, Dominguez said constitutional amendments may have to wait until a new Congress is convened because there is not enough time for the current Congress to pass the proposed draft.
“There’s no more time in this Congress, there only maybe around three weeks left. So we’re gonna do it again,” he said.
According to Dominguez, opening up the economy to more foreign investors would introduce more competition in the Philippines.
He agreed with a report released recently by the World Bank, which noted the country’s need for more competition, particularly in the power, transport, telecommunication and professional services, to improve services and boost economic growth.
“That was the comment of the World Bank, we need competition here. That’s true. So we want to introduce more. That’s why we are moving through the third telco player, why we’re introducing a lot of competition here,” the finance chief said.
In October last year, President Duterte issued Executive Order No. 65, containing the 11th regular foreign investment negative list, which enumerates the areas or activities open to foreign investors and those reserved only for Filipinos.
The new issuance has relaxed some restrictions on foreign firms’ participation in infrastructure and some professions.
President Duterte also signed in May last year Republic Act 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018 to reduce bureaucratic red tape that delay processing time for government transactions.
According to data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), net FDI inflows reached $9.06 billion in the first 11 months of 2018, about P297 million lower compared to the $9.36 billion recorded in the same period in 2017.
The BSP is targeting FDI inflows amounting to $10.4 billion for 2018 on the back of positive investor sentiment.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2019/03/11/1900312/economic-managers-push-changes-constitution-attract-more-investors#8YI3RLguJj1FerDd.99