THE Board of Investments (BoI) of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Provincial Government of Bulacan signed an agreement aimed at intensifying and expanding the granting of investment incentives.
The signing was held during the relaunch of the Invest Bulacan PLUS program at Cassis Restaurant in the City of Malolos.
With the MoA signing, the Green Lane for Strategic Investments in Bulacan's 20 municipalities and four cities will be established and institutionalized.
The MoA is in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s Executive Order 18 which mandates all partner national government agencies including the local government units involved in the issuance of permits, licenses, certifications or authorizations covering strategic investments to streamline the processes and requirements for opening business or investments.
BoI Executive Director Bobby Fondevilla said that the agreement reaffirmed that any single amount of investments even from barangay micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) up to big-ticket investments can avail of incentives from BoI and a particular local government.
The BoI wants to fully utilize the granting of output-based, targeted, time-bound and transparent investment incentives under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (Create) Law or the Republic Act 11534. One of these incentives is the granting of lower corporate income tax (CIT).
Fondevilla stressed that there's no duplication in this policy but complementation between the national government and local government units to encourage expansion of existing businesses and attract more investments.
The agreement was signed during the relaunching of the Invest Bulacan PLUS program initiated by Bulacan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) in 2018. It was adopted then by the Provincial Cooperatives and Enterprise Development Office (PCEDO) as one of the major economic policies of the provincial government.
To ensure that this will be seamlessly implemented, BoI Investments Assistance Center (IAC) representatives will assist enterprises in the submission and follow-up of applications for business permits and licenses.
At the same time, a One-Stop Shop Action Center for Strategic Investments (OSAC-SI) will be established in Bulacan to address investors' concerns starting from pre-project establishment up to post-investment assistance.
The said one-stop shop will help facilitate and expedite the investment projects and other pre-investment concerns in accordance with the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018 or the Republic Act 11032.
Gov. Daniel Fernando hailed the signing of the agreement that will hopefully bring Bulacan to greater heights as an emerging economic and financial hub in this part of the country.
Bulacan has already achieved a milestone, landing number eight in Most Competitive Province in 2023 from number 49 in 2018, and Fernando said "there is still so much that needs to be done."
Meanwhile, DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo, managing head of BoI, cited Bulacan's aggressiveness in putting the province on the radar screen of local and foreign investors.
He said that the relaunching of Invest Bulacan PLUS means promoting, leveraging, upscaling and synergizing which enable the province to achieve smart and sustainable investments.
Rodolfo said the initiative is timely and in line with the Marcos administration's positioning strategy to transform the Philippine economy into a regional hub for smart and sustainable manufacturing and services.
Among the priority sectors that Bulacan can expect potential investments include electric vehicles; smart and high-tech light manufacturing; outsourced semiconductor assembly and test; green metals; high-tech agriculture; renewable energy; data centers; and telecommunication infrastructure.
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