ASIDE from forging free-trade agreements (FTAs) with European countries, the government must also implement the necessary reforms to make the country more attractive to foreign investors, the Nordic Business Council Philippines (NBCP) said on Tuesday.
While the NBCP is optimistic about the Philippines’s efforts to expand trade ties with European countries, it stressed the need to prioritize policy and regulatory changes.
“Any movement toward a more liberalized free trade is a welcome development, as it could open more
doors to the Nordic region,” NBCP Executive Director Joona Selin said.
“On the policy side, what usually matters are the domestic trade and investment scenario, because even if we push these FTAs, we can’t seen an influx [of investments] because of regulatory barriers in domestic trade and investments,” NBCP Marketing Research officer Kent Primor added.
Among the barriers to foreign direct investments (FDI) usually cited by businessmen include constitutional limitations to foreign ownership and the restrictions contained in the Foreign Investment Negative List drawn up by the government.
“I think the transparency of rules and regulations is a major discrepancy between the environment from the
Nordic states and the Philippines. More liberal legislation on foreign ownership here would also see more FDI,” Selin said.
Businessmen from Nordic states are increasingly showing interest in the Philippines. In February a business delegation led by Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs Jan has Vappavuori visited the Philippines. The delegation consisted of businessmen from various sectors including energy, information and communication technology and mining.
The Philippine government earlier pitched projects under the public-private partnership scheme to businessmen from Norway and Sweden.
The NBCP represents the Nordic states of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. It also represents the business interests of the Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Bilateral trade between the Philippines and the Nordic region was pegged at €526 million in 2013. This makes the Nordic region the sixth largest trading partner of the Philippines.
Image credits: Roy Domingo