THE DAVAO City Investment and Promotion Center (DCIPC) is proposing amendments to the city’s Incentive Code, making it more attractive to investors.
In an interview, Christian Cambaya, DCIPC Investor Assistance and Servicing Unit head said they partnered with the Punongbayan & Aurallo (P&A) to review the code further and come up with the cost of doing business in Davao City.
“P&A came up with the business in the Philippines to lure investors, and now we localize it. This is a comprehensive guide that could readily be accessed by our local and foreign investors. What’s in Davao, what we have to offer, our rules and regulations, incentives, and our tax structure here in the city,” Cambaya said.
Presently, the preferred investment areas in the city include tourism, property development, agribusiness, business process outsourcing, technology, transportation, and infrastructure.
Cambaya mentioned that they plan to propose changes to the mayor, especially on extending the three-year incentives for investors to five years
“The tendency of this is that the generation of investments, new and existing, will increase because we’re still looking at doing more attractive incentives. At present there are only three years for business tax and two years for real property tax, but we might recommend to the mayor to make it five years to make it more attractive,” he said.
He also said the proposal would include huge projects that are not included in preferred investment areas, but reach a significant project cost and could still get tax incentives as a way of supporting them.
“We’re also proposing that those that are not included in the city’s investment areas should also be given incentives. There are actually a lot of huge projects coming in that were not included in our investment area. We do have a cap on project cost, and if they’ll reach that, they will also get an incentive,” he added.
Cambaya said they are yet to announce the completion of the investment code.
Photos: Bing Gonzales
