REPRESENTATIVES of the Batangas provincial government, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), Board of Investments (BOI), Aboitiz InfraCapital, and others met during the First Batangas Local Economic Development and Investment Promotions Conference held at the LIMA Park Hotel, at Lipa City and Malvar town.

The private and public entities engaged in developing an industrial park, as they had unanimously agreed that they needed to jointly promote and attract foreign direct investments to the province.

Stakeholders individually laid out their respective strategies for economic development, investment promotions, and sustainable growth.

They said that this is part of their objective to strengthen the economic landscape of Batangas.

According to Ludwig Daza, the head of the PEZA’s Ecozone Development Department, “the Philippines aims to be an investment haven in Asia.”

Daza said that they are encouraging the private sector to help develop, maintain and operate economic zones that will have no cost to PEZA or the government.

He outlined that the government offers attractive incentives to be able to lure investors under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act.

For her part, Maria Rosario Dominguez, director of the BOI Domestic Investments Promotion Service, said that the CREATE law offers a long menu of incentives.

Identifying them, Dominguez said it included four- to seven-year income tax holidays; 5 percent Special Corporate Income Tax based on Gross Income Earned (in lieu of all national and local taxes); duty exemption on importation of capital equipment, raw materials, spare parts, or accessories; and value-added tax (VAT) exemption on importation and VAT zero-rating on local purchases.