Relative to the commitments under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), the third meeting of the Sub-Committee on the Improvement of Business Environment was convened on 15 Sep 2011 in Manila, the first such meeting under the administration of President Aquino. Ambassador of Japan, H.E. Toshinao Urabe, and Undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, Hon. Adrian S. Cristobal, co-chaired the meeting.
In attendance were representatives from various Philippine government agencies, Embassy of Japan in the Philippines , Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). The private sector was represented by Mr. Nobuya Ichiki , President, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines Inc., and Mr. Donald Dee, Vice-Chairman of the Philippines Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
It was noted that JPEPA which entered into force in December 2008 has made significant strides in its implementation despite the global economic crisi s and financial instability in the past years . Both sides shared the view that it is too premature to make any definite analysis on the effects of JPEPA at this stage. However, it was noted that the recent figures related to trade and investment were very encouraging despite difficult economic situations the two countries had to face during these times. To illustrate:
a. Trade volume between the two countries increased in 2010 as compared to 2009: Philippines's export to Japan being from US$ 6.21 billion in 2009 to US$ 7.80 billion in 2010, pushing Japan back to the position of the biggest importer; Philippines' import from Japan being from US$ 5.34 billion in 2009 to US$ 6.75 billion in 2010, maintaining Japan as the biggest exporter.
b. Japan remains the biggest investor to the Philippines in terms of investments approved by the Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) with the value of PHP 58.3 billion in 2010. The accumulated Japanese direct investment to the Philippines in the last five years, from 2006 to 2010, is PHP 203.8 billion.
During the meeting, the Japanese side praised the strong commitments by President Aquino for anti-corruption measures. Both sides shared the view that the transparency, predictability and consistency is the key to improved business environment. The Japanese side was very much encouraged by the commitments by the Philippine Government to steadily implement concrete measures for that end. In this regard, both sides reaffirmed the importance of continuing dialogues with business communities with a view to attracting further investments into the Philippines.
Tax-related issues including VAT refund as well as other issues related to the improvement of business environment, such as the price and demand & supply projections of electricity, improvement of logistics including roads, ports and airports, limitation on foreign ownership in certain business sectors and human resource development were also discussed in the meeting.
Both sides agreed to continue to hold dialogues on business environment to further promote investments to the Philippines and decided to hold the next meeting of the Sub-Committee in March 2012. The first and second meeting of the Sub-Committee were held in June 2009 and May 2010 respectively.
Japanese Version
