Foreign chambers push reforms in 7 key sectors

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign business groups yesterday unveiled a roadmap with more than 70 recommendations across seven key sectors to attract more investments and generate jobs in the country.

Speaking at the Arangkada Philippines Investment Forum 2025 yesterday, American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines executive director Ebb Hinchcliffe said the book titled Reform in Motion: 15 Years of Arangkada is an update to a roadmap of over 400 reforms launched by the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) in 2010 to accelerate inclusive growth.

The JFC is composed of the American, Canadian, European, Japanese and South Korean chambers and the Philippine Association of Multinational and Regional Headquarters Inc.

It said the new recommendations cover seven big winner sectors: agribusiness, creative industries, IT-BPM (information technology-business process management), infrastructure, manufacturing, mining and tourism.

It said the recommendations “reaffirm Arangkada’s commitment to accelerated growth, an improved business environment and more and better jobs for Filipinos.”

In agribusiness, the recommendations include investing in shared-service facilities, professionalizing and digitalizing extension services, as well as increasing climate-resilient research and development funding.

To boost the country’s creative industries, the JFC’s recommendations include pushing for funding and implementing the Philippine Creative Industries Development Plan, as well as launching a unified Creative Nation branding and market access strategy.

Regarding IT-BPM, the JFC’s recommendations include harmonizing incentive policies and permitting across the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the National Telecommunications Commission and local government units, as well as modernizing labor and immigration rules for hybrid work.

To address infrastructure bottlenecks, the JFC cited the need to finalize and implement the National Transport System Master Plan as well as to come up with sector-specific nationwide master plans for aviation, land and maritime transportation.

In the manufacturing sector, the JFC believes consolidating sectoral roadmaps under an Industrial Master Plan with clear performance targets will be crucial.

To realize the mining sector’s potential, the JFC said a comprehensive national mining policy would be needed to clarify the roles of national and local government.

As for tourism, the JFC cited the need to amend the charters of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the Philippine Ports Authority to separate regulation from operations and streamline processes.