The city government is expected to pass the amendments to the Davao City Investment Incentive Code before the new set of officials take over in July, a top official said.
During the Wednesdays @ Habi at Kape – Abreeza, Lemuel Ortonio, Davao City Investment Promotions Center (DCIPC) head, said his office is presenting before the (DCIPC) Board the first draft of the amended code before the end of the month as the consulting company tasked to come up with the draft, Isla Lipana and Co., has completed it.
Ortonio explained that if the board approves the draft, it will eventually be presented before the city council for review and if approved it will be transmitted to the city mayor for her final approval.
Ortonio said among the salient points of the new code is the merging or elimination of some key activities. “There are still 10 preferred investment areas but some areas were split into two categories, some were merged, some were omitted,” he said.
Among the focus of investment, he added, will be the agribusiness sector as “based on the consultation from the different industry associations (and) also the discussions with the advisory panel, we (want to) focus on the sub-activities of agribusiness like post-production facilities,” he said.
He pointed out that the city has enough products, but it lacks facilities to add value to these products.
Ortonio said another amendment to the incentive code is providing better non-fiscal incentives to new investors by providing them better access to government agencies to hasten the approval of their applications to operate.
