The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) is grooming Mindanao as a premier investment destination of Middle Eastern countries via an investment road show to that oil-rich region next month.
The road show will also serve as a precursor to a major investment- promotion tour-cum-state visit of President Duterte there in February.
Learning and training sessions for key Mindanao developers and local government officials are under way as Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza bared the upcoming investment road show in the Middle East.
“Peza, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the owners of identified economic zones, such as some governors and mayors, are going on an investment road show in Riyadh, Qatar, and Dubai, to be followed by Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman,” Plaza told reporters early this week.
The investment-promotion agency is currently conducting seminars for the participants in doing business in the Middle East, and using sukuk bonds, or Islamic Treasury bonds.
Plaza disclosed that the road show/seminar, to be conducted in three ME cities (February 11 and 12 in Riyadh, February 13 and 14 in Dubai, February 15 and 16 in Qatar) will be to negotiate the possible investments to come into Mindanao, in time for the Chief Executive’s state visit in the week to follow.
“Peza was asked to be in the frontline in formalizing the possible investments to the Philippines prior to the state visit of President Duterte. He’s tentatively eyeing a state visit to the ME on February 26 onward to March 3 for Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Qatar; Part two is Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait,” Plaza said.
Learning sessions on using sukuk bonds will be significant for enticing Islamic investors who will prefer to do business with their own banks, she added. “We are also inviting the Islamic banks to locate in the Philippines so they can provide the financial facilities to the Middle East investors,” Plaza said.
With the push to lure more Middle Eastern investors, the Peza hopes to also speed up the development of new economic zones in Mindanao, and transform specific areas into so-called halal hubs.
“We want to attract all industries that are manufacturing halal products from halal cosmetics to food, we will be inviting them to locate in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao economic zones. From our initial talks, the investors from the Middle East are interested in tourism, agricultural economic zones, and putting up halal hubs,” Plaza said.
In tandem with the road show, the Peza is also conducting learning sessions with local government officials and private developers in Mindanao, so new economic zones can be built in the underdeveloped region.
Plaza also said the Peza is on track to finish this month its geo mapping of new and existing economic zones all over the country, as it embarks on an aggressive ecozone-development program this year.
This will be done in tandem with the Peza’s aggressive push to develop more economic zones to reach a “quadrupled” investment-approval level in 2017.
The map will serve as a guidance tool for new investors on where to locate their businesses, and will contain the raw materials and facilities in transportation and logistics found in every region.
The investment-promotion agency is keen to fast-track this initiative, as investors are said to be waiting on the wings to come in.
“Maraming naghihintay, and they’re just looking where to locate their industries. We will complete the location map of the economic zones,” Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza said.
The demand for locations has been so great that the Peza is looking to convert numerous other lands for economic-development use this year, Plaza added.
Rather than just focus on privately owned land, the Peza is already seeking to sign memorandums of agreement with other government agencies, such as the Philippine Reclamation Authority and the National Development Council, for local and national public lands that are at least 25 hectares, with the intent to declare them as ecozones.
Pending these agreements, however, Plaza said her first move is to look at military-reservation areas to be converted to economic zones.
With the Peza having successfully secured an exemption from the Department of Agrarian Reform’s proposed ban on conversion of agricultural lands, the agency can proceed with its development on idle and viable land.
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