OIC-Director for Investment Assistance Service Edilberto Nunag during his welcome remarks at the Investment Briefing/Counseling Seminar in Davao City.

The Davao City Local Government is maintaining its spot as one of the most competitive and highly urbanized cities in the country as it partnered with the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) in capacitating its Business Process and Licensing Officers (BPLOs), investment promotion officers, and frontliners on the latest government investment policies, ensuring they render excellent services for potential and existing investors in the City.

Davao City is the Top 3 Overall Most Competitive Highly Urbanized Cities in the 2017 under the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI), an annual ranking of Philippine cities and municipalities developed by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) through the Regional Competitiveness Committees (RCCs) with assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Under CMCI, cities and municipalities are ranked on their competitiveness based on an overall competitiveness score, which is the sum of scores on economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resiliency. Davao City bagged the 3rd spot, with an overall score of 56.19 percent for 2017.

“The BOI is collaborating with Local Government Units in attracting more investors to explore business opportunities and investments that would translate into employment opportunities and economic growth for our countrymen. Through the seminar, we hope the City Government of Davao will be more confident to handhold potential investors as they establish their businesses here,”said BOI OIC-Director for Investment Assistance Service (IAS) Edilberto Nunag during his welcome remarks at the seminar.

Davao City Local Government has investment projects, particularly in the tourism and infrastructure sectors, which are open for investors via the Local Government Unit-Public-Private Partnership scheme.

As the participants are equipped with new set of skills and knowledge in providing investment counseling to potential and even existing investors, the BOI envisions the Seminar will help Davao City in attracting potential investors for their investment projects. Even after the seminar, the BOI will still be working closely with Davao City by referring these projects to potential investors.

About 76 participants were capacitated recently (May 19, 2018) on the basics of doing business in the Philippines including a discussion on the Foreign Investments Act of 1991, the 10th Regular Foreign Investment Negative List, Options for Entry for Investors, the process of obtaining a Special Investors Resident Visa (SIRV), doing business with incentives as provided by the Omnibus Investment Code or Executive Order 226, BOI’s Investment Priorities Plan (IPP), and the different incentives offered by BOI and other investment promotion agencies (IPAs).

Additional topics were included in the Seminar, including tips on how to be an effective investment counselors and frontliners and introduction of the BOI’s One-Window Network (BOI-OWN), a cloud-based web portal and mobile application system that enables investors not only to lodge queries and concerns online, but also access a databank of information related to business and investments.

The BOI, through the IAS, initiated the conduct of investment briefing/counseling seminar back in 2014 to various regions in the country. In 2016 however, the agency started to conduct it in specific cities and municipalities with investment potentials. To date, the agency has already conducted a total of 37 seminars in 19 regions and 18 cities/municipalities throughout the country.

In addition to having LGU frontliners equipped with knowledge and skill in investment briefing and counseling, the BOI-IAS has initiated the proposal of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the BOI and the LGUs to strengthen collaboration in attracting more investments and to promote the ease of doing business in the Philippines.