Friday, August 03, 2007 Roperos: Proposed Cedza By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
MOVES by Cebuano members of Congress to set up a Cebu development authority will make this central island a pilot for a coordinated development program, something that has not been tried on an individual province basis.
If it pushes through and succeeds, it will have set Cebu on an economic development course that would make it become like Singapore. That would be the crowning glory of the current Cebuano lawmakers in the House who have joined forces for the province’s development.
House Bill 1319, if passed, will also be the first significant measure that is a product of an apolitical undertaking of Cebu’s politicians. It would be worth crowing about not only by the eight congressmen but also by the Cebuanos themselves.
The bill should be worth a careful study by development planners of the country and foreign investors who would like to participate in developing an island.
I think it would be spiritually enriching to see an island being transformed, through man’s collective endeavor, into a modern center of production of all sorts of consumer and industrial commodities for the Pacific and Asean markets. Such phenomenon has only been achieved by Singapore in the early ‘70s.
With the setting up of a Cebu Economic Development Zone Authority (Cedza) under HB 1319, economic growth in central Philippines will be spurred and catalyzed. I am sure that with the present momentum of growth in Cebu, the entry of Cedza with its package of tax incentives and other perks for investors would generate investments the likes of which our province has not seen anywhere in the country.
The package of incentives, based on provisions in the proposed law, “will give investors year-long income tax holidays and 100 percent exemptions on various taxes…Aside from tax free operations, certain investors will also enjoy 100 percent exemptions on customs duties, and their purchase of machinery and raw materials subject ‘zero’ value added tax.”
On top of it, investors who set up shop in areas outside highly urbanized centers will further enjoy more years of income tax holidays.
Even “construction of buildings and land improvements by new investors will be 100 percent exempted from taxes and duties.”
These incentives will be “on top of the non-fiscal incentives to be given to new businesses” once the proposed Cedza will hurdle legislative scrutiny.
Cebu is envisioned to be a self-sustaining “industrial, commercial, and investment center.” It will become an employment haven, as well.
