Big industries seek new legislation in 3 sectors

MANILA, Philippines – The Seven Big Winners or industries that provide the most jobs and investments in the country got together to ask the government for new legislation and reforms in their specific sectors.

“The honeymoon period for DOT (Department of Tourism) is now over. Time to really get moving,” Jose Clemente President of the Worldwalker destinations and the representative for the Tourism industry said during the Outlook Philippines 2011: Seven Big Winners forum.

 The other sectors were agribusiness, business process outsourcing (BPO) and creative industries, power, ground transport, manufacturing and mining.

 For agribusiness, Roberto Amores, vice president of PCCI for Agriculture said that the country will continue to struggle to produce a surplus across all commodities for next year despite the increased investment in agriculture.

Amores said the government must improve the credit access of micro, small and medium sized Entrepreneurs through a more expansive and flexible credit guarantee programs. Likewise, they said the government must provide adequate budget to fully implement the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act.

Also for the agribusiness, the government must provide expanded incentives to encourage private direct investments to implement commodity based clustering. Lastly, Amores said the congress must pass the law that allows land under CARP to be used as collateral.

For the IT-BPO sector, Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines President Oscar Sanez said that the government must provide adequate funding that will be used for a global awareness campaign on the Philippines as a center of excellence for business and creative services.

Likewise, they said there must be a policy and resource support to maintain tax incentive regime. Also, the legislation must be enhanced by passing bills on data privacy and the amendments to the labor code.