UK officials urge improvement of ‘political market mechanisms’

MANILA, Philippines - British government officials reiterated yesterday calls to improve the investment climate in the Philippines, particularly on the improvement of “political and market mechanisms.”

In a briefing yesterday following a visit to Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, George Freeman, UK’s trade envoy to the Philippines, said there are a lot of interest on the part of British companies such as energy firms to invest in the Philippines.

At the same time, members of the delegation expressed hopes the Philippine government would consider lifting the foreign ownership restrictions in the Constitution, at least for renewable energy investments.

“For any big project, you need certainty of ownership to be able to convince shareholders,” said British Ambassador Asif Ahmad.

In response, Petilla agreed there is a need to revisit the 40 percent foreign ownership limit for certain projects in the Philippines such as renewable energy (RE) investments.

“We’re really just looking at RE. It’s only the RE 60-40 provision that legislation can look into. As far as we concerned, these are capital intensive investments. To promote RE, we need to revisit the 60-40,” Petilla said.

However, the DOE chief stressed it was up to Congress to look into the matter as it is the one that would work on any amendments to the Constitution.

Freeman is in Manila from June 17 to 18 June to boost trade and investment relations between the UK and the Philippines.

Part of the mission are meetings with Petilla and other high-level government officials, local business leaders and the British business community.

A significant chunk of the mission is composed of energy companies, particularly those involve in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

“Energy security and climate change are mutual interests, with world energy demand expected to increase by almost 40 percent by 2035. Here in the Philippines, energy demand is growing at about 5 percent per annum,” the British Embassy in Manila said in a separate briefing paper on the trade mission.

“We’re focused on renewables and resilience. We think this market in the next 10 to 15 years will be very very attractive. How that market might evolve is what we’re looking into. We also want to promote energy efficiency,” Freeman said during the briefing.

Petilla, for his part, welcomed the mission and expressed hopes that the Philippines can learn energy efficiency measures from British companies.

“It’s to avoid building new plants. It’s about energy efficiency. How do we promote energy efficiency so we can avoid building additional power plants. That’s what we hope to get here,” Petilla said.