P-Noy signs 2012 IPP

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has approved the Investment Priorities Plan for this year that priorities the medical services sector and climate change mitigation and adaptation aside from agriculture, infrastructure and tourism.

In his message that went with the publication of Memorandum Order No. 40, Aquino said the government “strategically calibrated” the 2012 IPP to further strengthen last year’s investment generation agenda, “ensuring that our new initiatives will address present economic challenges and effectively establish sustainable gains.”

“This year’s IPP has been crafted to focus on four critical areas: job generation, enhanced delivery of social services, international competitiveness, and climate change mitigation and adaptation,” he said.

Anchored on the theme, “A New Day for Investments: Coherent, Consistent and Creative,” the President said the 2012 IPP “is a commitment to the business community that my administration is steadfast in sustaining a predictable, reliable and efficient Philippine investment landscape.”

“With the 2012 IPP, together with our instituted governance and business environment reforms, we look forward to stronger investor partnerships, in accordance with our goal of stability and equitable progress,” he said.

The priority sectors that will enjoy incentives include agriculture/agribusiness and fishery; creative industries/knowledge based services; shipbuilding; mass housing; iron and steel; energy; infrastructure and public private partnership; research and development; green projects; motor vehicles; hospital and medical; disaster prevention, mitigation and recovery projects and strategic projects.

Iron and steel was listed anew in the IPP in the hope to revive the sector. Iron and steel was removed from the IPP in 2011.

The last time the industry was listed in the IPP was in 2010, but not as a preferred sector but was lumped with “manufactured goods.”

The Bureau of Investments (BOI) also retained energy in the IPP despite an earlier plan to delist it to generate enough baseload capacity and prevent shortfalls.

Tourism was moved from the preferred sector list to the mandatory list, where it would be given incentives under the Tourism Act.

Public-private partnership (PPP), which was listed separately in the 2011 IPP, is lumped together with infrastructure. – With Louella Desiderio