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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Trade & Industry devider PH-UAE investment agreement in full swing - BOI

PH-UAE investment agreement in full swing - BOI

Published Dec 5, 2023 09:15 am

PH-UAE investment agreement in full swing -- BOI

By Khriscielle E. Yalao

The Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (IPPA) between the Philippines and United Arab Emirates (UAE) is "in full swing," following its ratification by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Board of Investments (BOI). 

The IPPA was signed last June 9, 2022 in Dubai, and ratified last Nov. 29, 2023. 

In a press briefing on Monday, Dec. 4, BOI Governor Atty. Marjorie Ramos-Samaniego, the lead negotiator of the IPPA for the Philippines, said that the UAE really pushed for the infusion of investments to the Philippines, with negotiations conducted over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The negotiations were concluded in a year with the support of the interagency committee on investments comprising of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Finance (DOF), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), and the Foreign Trade Service Corps (FTSC) in Dubai. 

As Samaniego explained, an investment agreement is a "rules-based framework for the promotion, facilitation, and protection of investments," which large service investors prefer in place before they pour investments into a country. 

These protections include provisions of "national and most-favored nation and fair and equitable treatment of investments, compensation for losses, guarantee against expropriation, and free transfer of capital."

Overall, the Philippine committee sought to establish an "enabling investment environment for the free inflow and outflow of investments" from the UAE given the progression of the country's Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the Middle Eastern nation. 

"Promotion of Investments is in full swing na po ang pagpromote natin ng investments. And noting as well that the sovereign wealth fund of UAE, which is under the Dubai Investment Authority, is almost amounting to $680 billion, (pertaining to their assets.) It is now high time and we are really going aggressively for them to put their investments into the country," said Samaniego. 

DTI Undersecretary Celerino Rodolfo added that the ratification "paves the way for the entry into force of the IPPA as soon as the DFA notifies via note verbale of the UAE side that we have completed our domestic ratification processes."

"On the part of the UAE, they were able to notify early part of this year that they have gone through the domestic process. So within 30 days from the issuance of the DFA note verbale, the IPPA will be enforced," said Rodolfo. 

He further remarked that a Joint Committee on Investment that will serve mutual investment interests can now be created since both sides have conducted the necessary internal processes for the agreement. 

Once implemented, the IPPA will help the Philippines become a "strategic hub for investments from the Middle Eastern region," especially in sectors including renewable energy solutions, agribusiness, infrastructure, information technology, and technological innovation, remarked DTI Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual. 

 

 

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