DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 7 Feb) – The city government here is doing a major overhaul of its revised Davao City Investment Code of 2012 to encourage more fresh investments by enhancing both fiscal and non-fiscal incentive offerings to new investors.
Lemuel Ortonio, head of the Davao City Investment Promotions Center (DCIPC), said on Thursday that consultancy firm Isla Lipana Co.
Inc. will present the completed draft to the Davao City Investment Incentive Board in the last week of this month for review and approval.
The investment chief said amendments will include increasing fiscal incentives on specific investments.
He added it will also have more non-fiscal incentives to enable an easier and more convenient facilitation of requirements for business applications, particularly investments that fall under the preferred investment areas.
The existing fiscal incentives offered by the City Government of Davao are three-year exemption from business tax and two-year exemption from real property tax and longer fiscal incentives for projects located in Calinan, Baguio, Marilog, and Paquibato.
Non-fiscal incentives are facilitation of processing of local permits and licenses, business information data-banking, referral for manpower and raw material sourcing, and investment counseling and business matching.
Ortonio said the move to enhance the non-fiscal incentives stemmed from the clamor of prospective investors for a one-stop shop that would house the different national regulatory government agencies that will make their business applications faster.
“We will provide assistance. For the new proposal, we will make arrangement with the national government agencies to put up specific or a special lane (for investors) if they are a grantee by the board,” he said.
Ortonio said they also seek to cut short the duration of the application from 3 days to 1.5-2 days.
He said they have also revised the 10 preferred investment areas of the city.
At present, it consists of agribusiness; tourism and recreational facilities; light manufacturing; infrastructure and connectivity; information and communications technology; property development; health and wellness, education, and sports facilities; generation of new sources of energy; and green projects.
He said some parts of it have been omitted.
Once approved by the board, Ortonio said they will submit the draft measure to the 18th City Council for approval before it will adjourn on June 30.
He said they are confident that there would no major changes that will be made once they present it before the board.
The government official said they can get legislative approval for the code before the council adjourns. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)