Philippines - Davao investments grow by 2.6%

THE Davao City Investment and Promotion Center (DCIPC) announced Monday a continued growth of investments in the city.

DCIPC chief Jason Magnaye said the total investment grew to 2.6 percent in terms of amount of business capitalization at P187 billion in 2011 from the P183 billion recorded back in 2010.

The establishment of new businesses in the city also showed an increase of 47.6 percent last year with an accumulated amount of P3.68 billion from P2.5 billion in 2010.

"This increase mostly came from real estate projects or property development projects here in the city," Magnaye said during the weekly Kapehan at SM City Monday.

Aside from the development projects, the business process outsourcing and tourism industries also helped in the increase of both capitalization and new business establishment.

There are five development projects approved by DCIPC. They include one resort, three hotels, one medical facility and four tourism industry-related projects of 2011.

However, Magnaye pointed out that because of the resolution directing the suspension of the acceptance of applications for fiscal incentives from investors, real estate projects went down from P3.5 billion in 2010 to only P3.4 billion last year.

Although the decrease was only minimal, Magnaye admitted the suspension of incentive affected the decline.

Fiscal incentives include exemption from building permit fees, mayor's permit fees, and basic real property tax as well as from business sales tax within three years from the start of commercial operations of the applicant business.

"The fiscal incentive helps the business and we will see by September of this year as the ordinance will be lifted, we intend to provide a very specific incentive code for business activation that will be updated every two years," Magnaye said.

He added that red tape can be avoided by the establishment of new businesses in the city because of the fiscal incentive that the city had previously provided.

The city is able to save P5 to 10 million from incentive revenue which is the reason of the passage of such ordinance, citing the need to save as it braces for a P360-million cut in internal revenue allotment share next year.

Carmelle Marie Harrow

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on January 03, 2012.

Business & Investment Opportunities

YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Consulting, Investment and Management, focusing three main economic sectors: International PR; Healthcare & Wellness;and Tourism & Hospitality. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programs. Sign up with twitter to get news updates with @SaigonBusinessC. Thanks.