The Office of the President has renamed the Investment Promotion Unit Network into the Investment Facilitation Network (Infanet) to promote the Philippines as an economic powerhouse in Southeast Asia.
Infanet will enhance inter-agency coordination, investor facilitation and streamline regulatory processes to improve local and foreign investments in the country, Frederick Go, special assistant to the president on economic and investment affairs, said on Monday.
In his speech at the signing ceremony of the joint memorandum circular creating the interagency Infanet, Go said officials of 38 government departments and bureaus signed the circular in Makati City.
Originally established as the Investment Promotion Unit Network, the agency has been formally adopted as the Infanet with the Board of Investment (BOI) as chair and secretariat.
The circular enumerates Infanet’s task as the agency that will institutionalize streamlined processes and establish a
formal coordination mechanism among member agencies to better support investors and reduce red tape.
Go said Infanet will improve ease of doing business and predictability of doing business in the Philippines.
Ceferino Rodolfo, BOI managing head, on Monday also said the circular establishing Infanet is part of the Philippines’ deliverables, particularly under the $1 billion loan documents–the $400 million Business Policy Loan Program through Technology of the Asian Development Bank and the $600 million Growth and Jobs Development Policy Loan Program of the World Bank.
In this regard, the government needs to put in place and institutionalize policies that reinforce the ease of doing business and the investment environment in the country, Rodolfo said.
The government intends to cut red tape and create a more business-friendly environment, Go said.
“The red carpet is being rolled out for sustainable, investment-led growth,” the Palace official added.
The Infanet unifies the implementing rules and regulations in approving projects endorsed as strategic investment under the Green Lane, as well as those of national government agencies and local government units in issuing permits or licenses within the prescribed processing time, the circular said.
Now that the circular has been signed, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will authorize local government units to enact ordinances adopting the circular, and establish monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, the investments board said.
The government offices that signed the circular were the Department of Trade and Industry, BOI, Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and its bureaus, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Tourism, Department of Transportation, DILG through its Bureau of Local Government Development, Department of Energy, Department of Finance through the Bureau of Local Government Finance, Department of Health, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Food and Drug Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission, Department Economy, Planning, and Development, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Manila International Airport Authority, Public-Private Partnership Center, Civil Service Commission, Energy Regulatory Commission, Office of the Ombudsman, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
