WITH a rapidly increasing Filipino population, the province of British Columbia in Canada is looking at having Philippine-based companies establishing presence in their locality.
Speaking during the recent opening of its trade and investment representative office in the Philippines, British Columbia Premier Christy Clark said the presence of 150,000 Filipinos makes it ideal for Philippine companies to invest in their province.
“Our economy is growing. It creates people-to-people relationship,” Clark said, while adding that they are looking at Philippine investors from the property and the food sectors.
Clark then declared that they would be having meetings with Ayala Corp. and Jollibee Food Corp.
According to Clark, Filipinos are in the top 3 among the biggest ethnic groups in British Columbia, along with the Chinese and the Indian nationals.
Clark said Filipinos in British Columbia are mostly professionals, including doctors, hospital workers and accountants. She also said there are a lot Filipinos who have established small businesses in their province.
British Columbia is projecting their real GDP will reach 2.40 percent this year, with them having a labor force reaching 2.49 million that is diverse, skilled and highly educated.
The province also has an 11-percent corporate income tax, which when combined with the federal rate, businesses pay a general income tax of 26 percent, lowest in the Group of seven.
The large Filipino community and the high growth of the Philippine economy are also the reasons they are setting up a trade and investment representative office.
“I think the Philippines did a good job in improving the business environment, otherwise, trade would not have grown. We are also familiar with the Filipino culture. It is not hard to find our way here,” Clark said.
Clark added that she wants to see trade between British Columbia and the Philippines grow significantly over the next several years.
“We can create more jobs when we trade more,” she said.
Clark added that there is a huge opportunity for British Columbia companies in the agri-food, clean energy, health care and education to establish presence here in the country.
The services for investors the trade and investment representative office will be providing include business start-up assistance, providing of business climate information, hosting and site tours, facilitating meetings with experts, access to government programs and major investment facilitation.
British Columbia has committed to enhancing and expanding trade relations with countries in the Asean region. It is committed to deliver new, streamlined services to assist businesses build relations in the region including those in the five of the 20 fastest-growing economies, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
After the Philippines, British Columbia would also be setting up a similar office in Indonesia in the coming months.
Clark is in her sixth year in office as British Columbia’s 35th premier, with the next election to be held next year. She said there is no term limit for elected officials in their province.
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