BRITISH COMPANIES have expressed interest in establishing a presence in the Philippines, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said following a roadshow to the UK.
The PEZA roadshow was conducted last month in collaboration with HSBC Philippines, BDO Unibank, the British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines, and the Asian Consulting Group.
“As part of the UK mission, PEZA collaborated with BDO to hold roundtable meetings and explore industry engagements and potential government-to-government collaboration,” PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga said in a statement over the weekend.
The participants in the roundtable meetings include Tech West England Advocates, SparQ International, Santander UK, the UK Department for Business and Trade, and the British Chambers of Commerce.
During the mission, PEZA also visited the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in London, which helped onboard a UK-Taiwan power electronics company in studying the Philippines as a manufacturing hub.
“The company, which operates a large campus in China, is a Tier 1 supplier to Dyson — another PEZA-registered locator,” Mr. Panga said.
Other companies from the electronics, information technology and business process management, steel manufacturing, pharmaceutical, renewable energy, data centers, and agro-processing industries have also expressed interest in registering with PEZA.
“The growing interest of British investors in the Philippines can be attributed to President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s proactive efforts in promoting the country to the UK and other global markets,” Mr. Panga said.
“This is further reinforced by the Philippines’ strong economic fundamentals and the recent enactment of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) law, which now offers the most generous fiscal incentives in ASEAN,” he added.
To date, PEZA is home to 64 British locators, accounting for P34 billion in investments and 72,000 jobs. — Justine Irish D. Tabile
