President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. will be signing an Executive Order (EO) providing for guidelines to expedite the processing and issuance of permits and licenses for the implementation of strategic investments in the Philippines and creation of a green lane that will translate to more quality jobs for Filipinos.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said Saturday, Nov. 3, the EO will create a green lane and technology-abled One-Stop Action Center for strategic investments. Pascual said this is in line with the President’s directive on improving the bureaucratic efficiency of the government and to achieve the administration’s 8-point economic agenda.
"This Executive Order will be in complementary with the functions of the Anti-Red Tape Authority. Through this and with the help of ARTA especially in streamlining government procedures, we will create a more favorable business ecosystem in the country by ensuring that investors who are planning to expand in the Philippines will go through seamless application processes. Once this is done, we expect that more jobs will be generated for our kababayans, especially in less developed areas," said Pascual.
The EO is aimed at encouraging investors to engage in Strategic Investments by facilitating and expediting actions related to the application of permits and licenses filed with National Government Agencies (NGAs) and their regional and provincial offices and Local Government Units (LGUs). Further, it contains a provision that mandates NGAs and LGUs to simultaneously process applications for permits and licenses with the presumption that relevant documents from other agencies have already been issued.
Relative to this, the applicant shall execute an affidavit of undertaking that it has secured the relevant documents from specific NGAs or LGUs and/or that it shall submit the complete documentary requirements within 30 working days.
Other key features of the proposed EO are the single point of entry for Strategic Investments availing of the Green Lane services with dedicated accounts officers designated to specific strategic investments for monitoring purposes. Further, periodic reporting to the President of the Philippines will be done on the designation and endorsement of Strategic Investments and the progress made in its implementation. These updates shall be regularly reported to the Cabinet at an interval to be determined by the Presidential Management Staff.