Phl urged to review foreign investment negative list

MANILA, Philippines - Sustained economic growth, continued improvement in governance and reduction of sectors in which foreign participation is limited will be crucial to achieving the European Union’s (EU) aim of doubling its investments in the country in the next five years.

EU Ambassador to the Philippines Guy Ledoux told reporters during the celebration of Europe Day 2014 that while the EU is already the biggest foreign investor here it intends to keep its position by doubling the amount of investments in the next five years.

EU’s foreign direct investment (FDI) stock in the country is worth 7.6 billion euros, around 30 percent of the country’s FDI stock.

 â€œIf all the parameters I mentioned before (such as) macroeconomic management, improvement in governance, reduction of corruption and addressing the (Foreign Investment) Negative List (FINL) issue, if all these elements are there, there are high hopes we can reach that target,” said Ledoux.

He noted that many European investors are considering the Philippines as a place to do business because of the country’s significant improvement in macroeconomic environment, investment grade status and the government’s good governance thrust.

“European companies are interested to explore opportunity in a fast growing market,” he said.

He said that through the revision of the FINL, the country would be able to attract more foreign firms to make investments.

The FINL, which is released every two years, identifies investment areas or activities which may be opened to foreigners and those reserved to Filipino nationals.

Ledoux said addressing the high power costs here will likewise be important in attracting investments.

EU member countries have been sending trade and investment delegations to the Philippines to check out investment opportunities.

EU firms have expressed interest in the infrastructure, agriculture, tourism and business process outsourcing sectors.

A trade and investment working group meeting will be held next month to review the trade and investment relations between the Philippines and EU. This is in line with facilitating investments from EU.

Ledoux said the meeting will also look at the prospective free trade agreement (FTA) of the EU and the Philippines.

Trade Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal, Jr. said earlier that the government aims to conclude the scoping exercise for the EU-Philippines FTA this year.

Another major development in Philippine-EU trade relation is the possible access of the Philippines to the EU Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), which would allow the entry of more Philippine products to the EU at zero duty.