BOI draws up rules for car dev’t program

The Board of Investments (BOI) is drawing up more comprehensive guidelines for registration of new participants under the new Motorcycle Development Program (MDP) and the Motor Vehicle Development Program (MVDP).

The need for more comprehensive guidelines was raised by BOI director Kim Henares after she observed that the requirements for participation under the old MDP was more stringent compared to the requirements for new participants under the new MDP, and would then seem to be unfair to the participants under the old program.

To come up with the new guidelines, the BOI had suspended for a short period the processing of new applicants under the MDP and MVDP earlier this month.

The Industry Development Group (IDG) has been tasked to draw up the new guidelines.

However, in coming up with the new guidelines, the IDG was instructed to specifically look into the required minimum investment or volume of production.

Under the existing MDP and MVDP, participants are required to bring in investment in the manufacture of motor vehicle parts and components for both export and domestic markets equivalent to $10 million for passenger car assemblers; $8 million for commercial vehicle assemblers and only $2 million for motorcycle assemblers.

There are currently 24 participants to the MDP and 14 to the MVDP.

The MDP and MVDP were recently revised under Executive Order 156.