Morning Brief: 14 October 2011

PHILIPPINES
Governance, economic stability, intermodal infrastructure
By: Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
 
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is urging the government to focus on three key areas—governance, economic stability, and inter-modal infrastructure—to boost the country’s competitiveness.
The business group crafted and approved various resolutions highlighting 14 sectors and industries at the Philippine Business Conference on Thursday. From these, three key priority areas were identified.
Under governance, PCCI called for transparency in all government dealings, particularly in the bidding for projects under the public-private partnership program.
The group also sought amendments to the implementing rules and regulations of the build-operate-transfer law and right-of-way acquisition negotiations.
Institutional reforms were also sought in the Maritime Industry Authority and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, two government regulators that governed the marine and aviation logistics and transport sectors.
On economic stability, the PCCI wish list included the crafting of a legislated Industrialization Policy, as well as competition and trade policy frameworks supporting the agriculture, energy, manufacturing, mining, transportation and communications, and services sectors.
The group also reiterated its push for more business-friendly policies in the areas of revenue generation, trade facilitation, environmental sustainability, small-and-medium enterprise development, intellectual property rights, tourism, and PPP investments.
Key policies supporting the energy sector were given emphasis under the wish list, with PCCI calling for the crafting of a five-year electric power industry roadmap, on which a long-term roadmap would be based.
This roadmap should contain solutions to bring power rates to more competitive levels, build adequate generation capacity for Luzon, and resolve the Mindanao supply shortfall.
In the area of intermodal infrastructure development, PCCI sought another roadmap, which would support business and economic activities in the countryside.
Projects such as the Light Rail Transit 1 South Extension and LRT 2 East Extension should be bid out as soon as possible, as these already had ready feasibility studies and were already very interesting to investors.
PCCI also reiterated its call for the legislative branch to pass laws important to boosting the country’s competitiveness, including the National Industrialization Plan; increased appropriations for agriculture, research and development, science and technology, and infrastructure; accession to the Madrid Protocol, which governs trademark registration; and amendments to the National Economic Research and Business Action Center of the Department of Trade and Industry.
“We are ready, willing and able to engage with government to tackle those measures and look forward to government’s favorable response to our drive for stronger partnership to sharpen our competitive edge,” PCCI president Francis Chua said.