Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo during his message after the MOA Signing on Investment Facilitation and Promotion between the BOI and Imus Local Government at the 2nd Imus City Business Summit held at the Imus Sports Complex, Imus City.

The Philippine Board of Investments (BOI), the country’s lead industry development and primary investments promotion agency (IPA), and the Imus City Government sealed a commitment to further strengthen collaboration in promoting ease of doing business and attracting more investments in the City with the signing recently (July 30, 2018) of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Investment Facilitation and Promotion.

The MOA provides for BOI to promote Imus City as a premier investment location by providing potential investors with relevant information on the city’s priority investment areas pursuant to its Local Investments and Incentives Code. The City Government of Imus on the other hand authorizes the BOI in facilitating business and/or investment applications and follow-ups as needed.
The MOA signing is one of the key activities at the 2nd Imus City Business Summit.

In his message at the Summit, Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo emphasized the importance of a strong collaboration between BOI and LGUs in promoting investments and securing investor confidence in the Philippines.

“As the country’s lead IPA, we are all for regional dispersion. Through the incentives available under the current Investment Priorities Plan, we highly encourage investors to consider locating their business and investment projects outside Metro Manila and stir the much-needed economic activities and development in other areas of the country,” said Undersecretary Rodolfo. “To achieve this, it is very important that the national government, the local government and the private sector work together and secure investor confidence,”   he said.

“A responsive and responsible local government unit (LGU) is critical attracting more investments to come in. We remain confident in the City of Imus and we hope to continue to see the City as one of the most competitive component cities in the country,” Undersecretary Rodolfo added.

The MOA with Imus City Cavite is BOI’s third with an LGU, The first MOA was with Cabuyao City signed last February 9, 2018 and the second was with Naga City signed last July 19 of this year.

Imus City ranked as the 8th Overall Most Competitive Component City for two consecutive years (2016 and 2017) in the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI), an annual ranking for Cities and Municipalities in the country developed by the National Competitiveness Council of the Philippines (NCC).

Under CMCI, cities and municipalities across the country are ranked based on their overall competitiveness score in economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resiliency. Imus City is currently at the 8th spot, with a total score of 47.66 percent for 2017.

Region IV-A (CALABARZON) where Cavite Province is located ranks 2nd in terms of geographical location for BOI-registered projects, with P60.56M worth of investments for the first seven months of 2018.

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) records also showed that CALABARZON achieved a positive local economic growth of 6.7 percent, putting the Region in 7th place among the 17 Regions of the country in 2017. ♦

Date of Release: 7 August 2018