Japanese investors list concerns about PH

Japanese investors raised a number of concerns which may affect their expansion plan in the Philippines.

More than 10 Japanese companies that attended a recent business dialog with the Department of Trade and Industry listed their concerns, such as processing and release of permits and licenses by regulatory agencies, the changes in the system on value added tax collection by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, additional taxes imposed by local government units and vaccination of expats.

Among the companies that participated in the roundtable discussion were Brother Industries, Canon Inc., Seiko Epson Corp., Terumo Corp., JMS Co. Ltd., ROHM Co. Ltd., NIDEC Corp., MinebeaMitsumi Inc., Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and IBIDEN.

The companies account for $2.5 billion in investments, $6.9 billion in exports and over 83,000 in total employment. The companies asked the support of the government in terms of providing green or express lanes similar to those given by other Southeast Asian countries.