President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., together with Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual on Thursday led the official launch of the green lanes for strategic investments at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza in Pasay City.
The green lanes for strategic investments were established through Executive Order No. 18 issued on Feb. 23, 2023.
Pascual, chairman of the Board of Investments and the Inter-agency Investment Promotion Coordination Committee said the order complements efforts to sustain the country’s strong economic growth by attracting more strategic investments into the country and ensuring faster realization thereof.
“The green lanes that we have set up will address the barriers across multiple regulatory agencies that hamper the entry and delay the realization of foreign direct investments. By further easing and fast tracking the processes for doing business in the Philippines, we will raise the competitiveness of the country in attracting strategic investments by global enterprises,” he said.
EO 18 is a government-wide response to enhance the ease of doing business in the country by expediting, streamlining and automating government processes for strategic investments. Its outstanding feature is the provision for simultaneous processing of applications where national government agencies and local government units that receive applications for permits and licenses are mandated to process the same with the presumption that the relevant documents from other agencies have already been issued and where the applicant firm will execute an affidavit of undertaking that it has secured the relevant documents from specific NGAs or LGUs and that it will submit the complete documentary requirements within 30 working days.
This special feature is seen to significantly cut down the processing time for documents needed to start a business in the Philippines.
EO 18 also mandates the DTI-BOI to establish a One-Stop-Action-Center for Strategic Investments which will serve as the single point of entry for all projects qualified as strategic investments. OSAC-SI is mandated to identify and designate an investment as strategic investment and endorse the same to concerned NGAs, LGUs, and/or quasi-judicial bodies for processing of permits and licenses.
Strategic Investments include highly desirable projects recommended by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board to the Office of the President , foreign direct investments as endorsed by the IIPCC and priority projects or activities under the Strategic Investment Priority Plan. It also covers the investment pledges presented to the President during his presidential visits.
The Online Platform for Green Lane Services, developed by the Department of Information and Communication Technology and is set to be the dedicated digital platform for EO 18, was also launched during the event. This will facilitate green lane applications.
The Investments Promotion Unit Network members also signed a covenant supporting the implementation of EO 18. The IPU Net is a collaborative network of investment promotion agencies and government agencies that are involved in the setting-up of businesses in the country which includes the Securities and Exchange Commission, DENR-EMB and DOH-FDA.