2011 IPP scheduled to take effect July 27

MANILA, Philippines - The 2011 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) is scheduled to take into effect on July 27 with 13 priority sectors.

In an interview with reporters, Board of Investment (BOI) managing head Cristino L. Panlilio said President Aquino signed the IPP last July 5 after making several adjustments including adding Creative Industries and Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Recovery Projects to the list.

At the same time, Panlilio reported that they have already resolved the issue on the allowable ceiling cost for mass housing units. It can be recalled that there were discussions on the limit. The Department of Finance (DOF) was asking for a P2 million cap while developer groups and Vice President Jejomar Binay were asking that the ceiling remain at P3 million.

Panlilio said the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the IPP is expected anytime soon because the technical people are already working on it.

Although the plan was to make this IPP list valid until 2012, the list was approved only as 2011 IPP. Panlilio was lobbying for the extension of the IPP list because more than half of the year has passed before the list was signed by the President.

Earlier, Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said that two industries, creative industries and disaster mitigating projects, were added to the IPP. Film and TV production fall under creative industries.

These two sectors were included in the IPP list last year but were removed by the BOI. Creative Industries was eliminated because films and productions that will be shown overseas qualify for incentives because it is for export while the disaster mitigating projects were removed because no company availed of it last year and there are opinions that disaster mitigation should be undertaken by the government.