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[av_heading heading=’Iloilo biz sector bullish on upcoming British Chamber Trade Mission’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
By Rhick Lars VladimerAlbay
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February 5, 2018
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Potential ‘ecozones’ to be highlighted during mission
ILOILO City – “We’re definitely expecting big investments, as well as looking forward to the opportunity of building stronger ties with foreign businessmen,” Lea Lara, executive director of the Iloilo Business Club (IBC),told Panay Newsas the local business sector girds for the upcoming British Chamber of Commerce Philippines (BCCP) Trade Mission.
BCCP chairman Chris Nelson earlier expressed in a televised interview that they are set to bring a delegation of 50 businessmenfrom the United Kingdom to join their Iloilo Trade Mission this coming March 8 to 9, as the British Chamber seeks to encourage more businesses to expand in the Visayas region.
Lara said that she hopes that the upcoming BCCP trade mission will be as fruitful as the series of Hong Kong investment trips Iloilo welcomed in 2017.
“We’re happy with the successful Hong Kong trade mission last year as three of them have already set up shop here and have invested in the IT-BPO [information technology–business process outsourcing] sector,” related the IBC executive. “We’ll be trying to sell our agriculture and manufacturing areas for this [upcoming BCCP] trade mission.”
POTENTIAL ECOZONES
Lara added that the Iloilo Provincial Government will be highlighting their potential economic zones, or “ecozones” to lure in more investors, during the Trade and Investment Forum hosted by BCCP this March.
Initially identified as potential “economic zones” are the towns of Dumangas for logistics and light industries, Leganes for agri-industrial economies, and Passi City and Concepcion for the manufacturing industry.
With this, the Iloilo Provincial Government seeks to continuously provide its 43 municipalities with enabling environments for investors, like the implementation of electronic business permits and licensing system.
“Ecozones are basically big spaces that cater to certain industries working towards serving a value chain of products not necessarily for the local market. Firms locating in ‘ecozones’ get to enjoy incentives and these are seen to attract big investors especially in manufacturing,” said Lara.
‘FASTER GROWTH’
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) earlier forecasted that the average growth rate in the Visayas region will be higher than the government’s targeted national GDP growth for 2017-2022. In addition, there’s a growing interest of British companies in regional investment opportunities in the county.
“We saw a forecast that could put the Visayas region between 8 and 9 percent [when it comes to economic growth], so if we have the Philippines growing at 6 and 7 percent, that of course shows growth at a faster rate,” said Nelson.
From the previous trade mission to Davao, two member companies of the BCCP have already started investing in the Mindanao hot spot. The two firms are SeaGard Marine Asset Protection and YLF Contracts and Cost Solutions. Edinburgh-based Seagard provides monitoring and protection services while Manila-based BCCP member YLF is an engineering consultancy firm.
Nelson hopes to build the same business ties in Iloilo City and encourage even more investments in the developing metropolis.
“We’re very much looking into building relationships long-term. Iloilo is becoming a very progressive city and has great potential to grow even more,” shared Nelson. “It’s obviously got businesses there that are developing like in agri-business and manufacturing – [the Iloilo Trade Mission] is a show of our overall support to the [Duterte administration’s] 10-point economic plan, to look at economic development outside Metro Manila.”/PN
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