Salceda: Economic cha-cha to address ‘staggering’ cost of PH inability to open doors for FDI

Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda on Tuesday said approving proposals to amend the restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution will address the “staggering” cost of the country’s inability to open its doors to foreign investments.

During the debates on the adoption of Resolution of Both Houses Number 2 (RBH 2), Salceda told the House plenary that the Philippines had the tightest foreign direct investment (FDI) restrictions, performing poorly in terms of accumulating FDI stocks.

“In other words, we opened the fewest doors, so we were visited by the fewest opportunities,” Salceda, an economist, pointed out.

Comparing the country’s ability to attract FDI to the success of Vietnam, its neighbor in the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Salceda said that since 1987 when the Constitution was approved, the Philippines’ share of the net FDI inflows in the region has declined.

“In 1996, a decade after the 1987 Constitution, we were still taking 5.1 percent of ASEAN’s FDIs. Now, we are just taking 4.4 percent, less than half that of Vietnam,” he lamented.

Aside from highlighting the inability of the country to bring in fresh foreign investors, Salceda also explained how keeping out foreign investment “spoiled” domestic market players.

“Shamefully, and once again, we are the most oligopolistic market in the region. The World Economic Outlook Global competitiveness index, from 2017 to 2018, shows that the Philippine market is dominated by the fewest business groups, among all economies in the region,” said the lawmaker.

RBH 2 to amend economic provisions in the Constitution in a bid to open up the Philippines to foreign investments which may help stir economic activities to aid the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession.

Critics however feared that the proposed charter change will include political provisions such as term extension for lawmakers.

But supporters of the move assured that the proposed charter change will only cover the economic provisions of the Constitution.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)