The Board of Investments (BOI), the industry and investment promotion arm of the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), is continuing its efforts in further strengthening the awareness level of its stakeholders on the latest government investment policies, regulations, and procedures as it conducts the third BOI Investment Awareness Seminar To Strengthen The Investors and STakeholders (BOI ASSIST) recently (August 18, 2017) at the Department of Budget & Management Regional Office III in San Fernando City, Pampanga.

The BOI ASSIST is a capacity building seminar being facilitated throughout the country by the Investment Assistance Service (IAS) for BOI-registered and prospective investors aimed to hone their knowledge on the latest investment policies and business registration procedures of various government agencies.

“We want to bring government services closer to BOI-registered companies in the regions, because it is imperative for you, our stakeholders, to be abreast of the terms and conditions of registration and be updated with the current investment policies and programs. The BOI ASSIST program will help you maintain the smooth operations of your BOI-registered projects and prepare for possible business expansions,” said BOI Director for Investment Assistance Service Domingo Bagaporo in his welcome remarks during the seminar.

About 80 representatives from BOI-registered companies in the sectors of agriculture, consumer goods, energy, food sector, housing, manufacturing, service and utility companies in the Central Luzon Region were capacitated on the investments facilitation and aftercare services of the agency. The participants were also oriented on the process of availing incentives and their obligations as BOI-registered enterprises.

Left photo shows IAS Director Domingo I. Bagaporo delivering his opening remarks at the BOI ASSIST seminar.  Right photo shows some of the BOI-registered firms who were capacitated on the latest government investment policies, regulations, and procedures.

Resource persons from partner government agencies include Atty. Beverly Milo of the Bureau of Internal Revenue who discussed the Bureau’s updates on Importer’s Clearance Certificate (ICC), availment of Income Tax Holiday (ITH), and value added tax (VAT) ruling policies and procedures; Ms. Brenda Miranda of the Bureau of Local Government Finance on Local Business Tax (LBT) exemptions and assessment of LBT; Dr. Siegfred Manaois of the Bureau of Customs on updates on customs procedures and policies; and Ms. Raquel Rosario Cunanan-Marayag of the Office of the Ombudsman on the functions and duties of the Investment Ombudsman.

The Central Luzon Region remain the top three locations for BOI investments in the past two years. For the January to July 2017 period, the region reached highest total investment registrations with Php109.39 million. The investment value is 146.81 percent higher in the same period last year.

The biggest chunk of investments came from a construction project amounting to Php79.19 million, while the rest are shared by the real estate activities, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and fishing and accommodation and food service. Out of the 63 registered projects located in Central Luzon, 30 are from the real estate activities, paving the way for more mass housing projects to boom in the region.

These investments significantly contributed to the region’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth of 9.5 percent in 2016 which in turn contributed 0.9 percentage point to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) of 6.9 percent last year, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.

BOI already conducted two seminars in the first half of the year, last March 3 at the Philippine Trade and Training Center in Pasay City for stakeholders in the Calabarzon Region IV-A and June 1 at Sydney Hotel in General Santos City for stakeholders in the SOCCSKARGEN Region. BOI is set to conduct two more seminars for the rest of the year.