CANADIAN businessmen are unfazed by the Duterte administration’s foreign policy shift and not a single Canadian company with investments in the country has announced any plan to stop or even reduce operations, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.
In fact, CanCham president Julian Payne said the investment potential of the country will likely continue due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic agenda which promotes foreign investment.
“In fact, the Canadian chamber and Canadian businessmen look upon his 10-point economic agenda very friendly to foreign investment,” Payne said during the launching of the 11th International ICT Awards Philippines which will be held on March 22.
“We have seen no Canadian companies indicating concern of pulling out,” said Payne, who has been living in the Philippines for the past two decades.
“Our real concern is how quickly these can be implemented,” Payne said, noting that in other Asian countries, an investor can form a corporation in just one day in only two steps.
SunLife and Manulife are the two biggest Canadian-owned companies and they have been here for 100 years. Canadian companies, he disclosed, have also investments in mining, ICT, and electronic industries.
Duterte’s avowed shift in the country’s foreign policy has so far had no effect on Canadian companies in the Philippines.
“I don’t think he made new efforts with Canada, but we have seen no other effect,” Payne said. “Basically we see your country as pro-business, open to foreign investment and foreign participation.”
He said that Canadian companies are also looking into investing in retail industry, but refused to disclose particular future Canadian business.
“We don’t want to disclose [future business investment] ahead of time because we leave it to the discretion of the companies. But all the time companies are looking for potential investments, like coffee shops, some in mining, some in ICT. We see it all the time. The company itself is taking the initiative on it,” Payne said.
Payne said he sees the potential of the Filipinos for being highly-skilled and English-proficient employees and that is one of the reasons why the CanCham, in partnership with IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines, launched the yearly International ICT Awards.
“The Awards recognize and acknowledge the innovation, dedication, and impact of companies, their teams, and their leaders from one of the most progressive industries in the Philippines today, the IT-BPM Industry,” IBPAP president Ike Amigo said in his opening remarks.
Payne said, what is unique in this year’s ICT Awards is that two major competing companies, Globe Telecommunication and PLDT, will work together as sponsors of this event.
There are 16 Award Categories for 2017, 12 regular recognitions and four new categories of awards, these are; Best-First-Time Nominee of the Year Award; Best C-Suite of the Year Award; Best Mobile App Developer Company; and Best Front-Line Team Award.
The procedures for submitting nominations and judging remain unchanged, Payne said, adding by visiting its website for the application of nomination.
Amigo said the Philippines is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and the IT-BPM industry continues to be one of the strongest industries this nations has produced.
Employing more than 1.15-million Filipinos and generating a revenue of almost $23 billion, the Philippines IT-BPM industry, Amigo said, continues to put the Philippines on the map by providing a unique set of offerings from customer relationship management to technology interventions and service delivery innovations to various geographies all over the world.
