Finnish Businesses Optimistic About New Philippine Investment Priorities Agenda

Left photo: Director Angelica Cayas of the Bureau of Investments speaks before the Finnish-ASEAN Trade Association in Helsinki. Right photo: The Philippine investments promotion team with the Finnish Information Security Cluster

02 June 2017 HELSINKI — Finnish businesses expressed their optimism on the new investment and market opportunities in the Philippines when an investment promotion delegation from the Philippines bared the Philippine Government of its 2017 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) during a visit to Helsinki from May 22-24.

The new plan expands incentivized areas for foreign investment from eight to ten sectors.  Foreign investors whose businesses fall under the new areas such as “innovation drivers”, “inclusive-business models” and environment/climate-change can now enjoy privileges such as corporate and income tax holidays, duty-free importation of equipment, tax credits on certain items, employment of foreign nationals for certain positions and simplified/facilitated customs procedures.

For a knowledge-based economy like Finland, the new areas for investment piqued the interest of Finnish companies in the green innovation industries like cleantech, climate change, sustainable transport and energy and waste management.

Another area of interest was meeting the growing needs in the Philippine healthcare sector, in particular medical infrastructure and hospital/laboratory equipment, pharmaceuticals and medical ICT solutions.

For more information, visit www.oslope.dfa.gov.ph/ www.philembassy.no or https://www.facebook.com/philembassy.no. END