DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 September) — Mindanao exporters are lobbying for government to grant them the same exemptions and privileges enjoyed by firms within the export processing zones in the country.
Bonifacio Tan, former president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCCII), said government should follow the examples of China where firms are allowed to put up their factories near the sources of their raw materials and still enjoy the same incentives offered by the government.
“Local investors should enjoy the same privilege granted to foreign investors inside EPZA (export processing zone authority). Foreign investors enjoy tax and duty free importation of machinery inside the zone and they can even bring their families there,” Tan told the Davao roadshow of the 2010 Investment Priorities Plan organized by the Board of Investments (BOI).
He also said that it’s “not very practical” to put agro-industrial firms engaged in rubber and poultry processing, for example, inside the export processing zone because of their “pollutants.” “These are the kind of industries operating in Mindanao,” Tan said.
“They just can’t put palm oil and rubber processing plants inside the economic zone. It’s not very practical,” he said.
Tan said a foreign company once located its rubber processing plant inside the Zamboanga economic zone but the company did not last two years because of raw material problems.
“They had to source their raw materials from about 120 kilometers away, so, eventually, they folded up and transferred somewhere else,” he said. “If the government is really serious in helping Mindanao exporters, they will extend to local companies the same privileges enjoyed by foreign companies inside the eco-zone.”
Geronimo Santa Ana, BOI Governor, said the government wants to spur domestic investments to keep the economy going by encouraging more small businesses to invest.
He said he understood the dilemma faced by Mindanao exporters and promised “to do something about it.”
“Unlike the assembly and manufacturing industries, agro-industrial firms have to locate their processing plants close to where their raw materials are,” Santa Ana said. He said the government will consider the points raised by Mindanao exporters and will work it out that the same incentives enjoyed by economic zone locators will also be extended to them. “One of the advantages of roadshows like this is we get to know the concerns confronting our small exporters outside of Metro Manila so that we can do about it,” Santa Ana said. (Germelina Lacorte/MindaNews)
