The ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) together with the Department of Trade and Industry’s Board of Investments (DTI-BOI) conducted a webinar (25 March 2021) on the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act and Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP) as part of AJC’s ASEAN Update series and DTI-BOI’s roll-out of CREATE Campaign. The event was co-organized with the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines and Japan External Trade Organization in Manila (JETRO Manila) and supported by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), Japan-Philippines Economic Cooperation Committee (JPECC), and Philippine Trade and Investment Centers in Tokyo and Osaka.
“Annual trade statistics from the Japanese Ministry of Finance show that Japan exports to the Philippines totaled 940 billion yen and imports to Japan from the Philippines were 990 billion yen in 2020. This shows that Japan and the Philippines have a near-balanced trade relationship. Along with other ongoing reforms, the CREATE Act in the Philippines is expected to improve market and investors’ trust in rationalizing incentives that are addressing changes in business needs,” Masataka Fujita, AJC Secretary-General said in his opening remarks.
He added that in the past fiscal year, the Centre has already conducted 13 webinars related to the Philippines and said “we truly hope our projects/webinars will strengthen the partnership between Japan and the Philippines and bring further development in our relationship.”
Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Kazuhiko Koshikawa, in his message, said that the Philippines still has a big potential for economic growth and highlighted the fact that before the pandemic, the country has had a long and continuous economic growth. “Japan is among the strongest supporters of the Philippine government initiatives in addressing the pandemic. I am confident that the Philippines will be back on a stronger trajectory in the post-COVID-19 era as I believe there’s still plenty of room for Japanese companies to do business here,” he pointed out.
JETRO Manila Investment and EPA Advisor Tomohiro Ando echoed the Japanese Ambassador’s statement on his presentation on the General Business/Economic Situation of the Philippines. He said that the country’s GDP growth rate dropped in 2020 but Philippine exports have shown recovery on a monthly basis. He also noted some of the country’s advantages. “The Philippines has a favorable level of labor cost compared to its neighbors. Production cost is also lower. The continuous growth of the working population on the other hand provides rich and abundant human resources. Though supply chain development remains as one of the areas for improvement, suppliers for electronics and other export-oriented industries such as metal and plastic parts have increased over the years,” he said.
“Under the CREATE Act, the removal of restriction for providing incentives to foreign companies will attract more foreign direct investments (FDIs) as multinationals are not only going to target the domestic market but also boost the country’s export market. So now, even 100 percent of Japanese-owned companies may register with the BOI and sell primarily to our large and fast-growing domestic market, without even needing to export even a single product. And certainly, this applies to all Japanese auto companies,” Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said during the webinar.
Undersecretary Rodolfo elaborated that in the Philippines, Intellectual Property (IP) is protected as the country is among the very few countries that have not been identified by the United States Trade Representative Office as having issues on IP.
“We also respect investors’ commercial commitments. Even at the height of this pandemic, when our domestic need for medical-grade face masks was greatest, we did not restrict the exports of Yokoisada—the Japanese company that was producing excellent medical-grade N88 masks in our country. We did not even impose any export restrictions even on the most critical products that we needed domestically. We are an ideal site for export manufacturing. We also facilitated the skeletal and full operations of at least four companies that all play a critical role in the non-disruption of the global supply chain for essential industries,” Undersecretary Rodolfo added.
BOI Director Elyjean D. Portoza presented the salient features of the CREATE Act, emphasizing the major impact of the reduction in Corporate Income Tax (CIT) from 30% to 25% for big firms and for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to 20% as very significant as it will open up cash flows and attract more investments to support the efforts of businesses to rebuild after the pandemic. “CREATE Act provides flexibility to the government to grant fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to activities that are deemed strategic,” she explained.
Trade Undersecretary Rafaelita M. Aldaba also presented the critical role of SIPP under the CREATE Act. “The SIPP represents the country’s investment plan that contains the list of priority industries and investment promotion and facilitation activities for all Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs). It will define the coverage of industry tiers and provide the conditions to qualify the activities,” she said. She added that fiscal and non-fiscal support would be provided for industries that create high-skilled jobs that can supply to domestic and global value chains, increase the sophistication of products and services that are produced domestically, expand domestic supply and reduce dependence on imports and attract significant foreign direct investments. “The BOI, in coordination with the Foreign Investment Review Board, IPAs, other government agencies administering incentives, and private sector will formulate the SIPP,” Undersecretary Aldaba said. ♦
Date of Release: 17 May 2021