The country’s investment chief believes there is a brief window of just three years to attract large-scale investments from companies diversifying into Southeast Asia.
Secretary Frederick Go of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on Investments and Economic Affair, in a television interview said the enactment of Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) is timely to reverse the decline in foreign direct investments to the Philippines.
“Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, and even to a certain extent, Singapore have been grabbing the lion’s share of investments, and the Philippines has lagged behind in this respect…we have missed the boat in the last many years. That is exactly what we are trying to reverse. There is right now this great move to diversify manufacturing and services throughout Southeast Asia. There’s a small window of opportunity needed to get through this,” Go said.
He, however, said tthis window of opportunity will not last long,” Go said.
“We need (CREATE MORE) to get working right away. But this window is probably a three- year window to 2027 to try to grab all these large scale investments,” Go added.
Go said the goal is to bring back more manufacturing into the country such as in automotive both for internal combustion engine and electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar panels, steel among others which would create thousands of jobs.
Signed by President Marcos Jr. on Nov. 11, 2024 CREATE MORE Act or Republic Act 12066 builds on the country’s economic reforms introduced under the CREATE law by making the country’s tax incentives more globally competitive, investment-friendly, predictable and accountable. The CREATE MORE Act, among others, lowers the corporate income tax rate and increases deductible items; provides value-added tax exemptions and zero-rating on local purchases for certain businesses; allows information technology and business process outsourcing firms to offer alternative work arrangements such as working from home, without affecting their businesses.
