Investment Incentives

The City Council committee on trade, commerce and industry commenced this Monday morning with the public hearings on the proposed amendments to the 1994 Davao City Investment Incentive Code.

There were four key proposals presented in amending the Code. These were all contained in the study done by SGV & Co., which did the review partly on pro bono basis. The Davao City Investment Incentive Board approved the study recommendations last November 2005. The same were endorsed by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to the City Council last January 2006.

The proposed changes were in the:

Ø list of priority investment areas. There will be additional preferred areas, such as for instance, production and generation of alternative sources of energy, which I personally proposed;
Ø additional tax incentives. For instance, the grant of more incentives for business locators outside the central business district to help disperse the growth of the city;
Ø composition of the incentive board. Appointment of additional representatives from key sectors, example, the academe and Chinese Chamber ; and
Ø organizational structure and staffing of the Davao City Investment Promotion Center, including its elevation as a department directly under the Office of the Mayor.

Davao City was among the pioneering local government units to adopt an investment incentive Ordinance when the Local Government Code of 1991 took effect. We prepared it as early as 1992 when we launched the “Invest in Davao” Project.

At that time, I was head executive assistant of Mayor Duterte and I chaired the economic study group that drafted the Framework for the Socio-economic Development Plan of Davao City.

This framework plan became the basis of the City Council in enacting a number of noteworthy legislations like the Investment Incentive Code in 1994, and the Comprehensive Development Plan and Zoning Ordinance in 1996.

It has been more than a decade hence, so we needed to update these ordinances to keep up with the times.

We got interesting inputs from the SGV team led by Cocoy Tacandong and lawyer Hermenegildo Cabreros, DCIPC chief Bobby Teo, Councilor Susabel Reta, realtor Leopoldo Parreno, City Treasurer’s Office Catalino Bolo, among others.

Please join us in the next public hearing set on Monday, March 27, also at 9 a.m. at the 3rd floor of the City Council. We want to hear your views on this important ordinance. This is one of the priority measures of the City Council and part of my priority program for this year.

(Submitted as Signs of the Times column article for the Mindanao Times for March 21, 2006)