Sunday, September 30, 2007 Gulle: So we need investors By Inocentes A. Gulle Your Business is our business
SO many come-on gimmicks had been tried by both government and private sectors to attract foreign businesses to invest here. But we don't seem to hear much positive response from that direction. Although there might have been a few interested parties; they probably have decided to take their time, having been stymied by a few constraints.
We hear comments about too many requirements to comply with that even domestic investors trying to re-locate here find them so tedious -- permits, compliance certificates from different local and national government agencies, zoning ordinances and so forth -- that would confront the would-be investor before he even gets the feel of the place, the climate and the people.
Not to mention the fact that some heads of offices need to "really know the applicant that well", you know, before he'd sign any paper. We also hear of local real estate dealers who would suddenly develop hypertension (price-wise) as soon as they hear somebody's looking around for possibilities.
Now, having smoothed all other things, somewhat, a foreign company would have to contend with other problems, like in acquiring landed property where he'd locate his place of business -- plants for manufacturing concerns, or farming areas for agri-business or some such ownership problems -- as I hear our laws would not allow foreigners to own real properties here.
Not only that they cannot own lands here, they can not also rent more than 1,500 hectares in the aggregate. I hear that some local smart opportunists who are in the know up there, take advantage of these constraints by getting themselves "available", to "help find a way around the law", by offering to act as dummy for the foreign company, or maybe be sold shares of stock (at their price) in order for that company to meet the 60-40 percent domestic-to-foreign stock ownership ratio requirement.
Then there's that perennial peace and order problem with ethnic Muslims in Central Mindanao that seem to defy resolution. Not that the Moro residents in the area are that unreasonable but that, so the rumor persists, some big guns up there would not let the these people rest until they would grow too weary fighting and give up.
And once that happens, they can get their hairy hands on that piece of real estate somewhere in the area of Ligwasan, where a vast oil or gas deposit is believed to be. Not to mention the apparent government neglect of the plight of the inhabitants in the area -- almost total absence of development efforts on the part of the government in terms of transports, schools, hospitals, etc.
This rumor does not come from the Moro people alone, you know. (However, I can't think of a way to confirm this and others mentioned. For who would admit they are wetting their beds nights, anyway, if you know what I mean?!.)
Now, if our brilliant lawmakers and leaders would only look more closely, even with their somewhat cock-eyed, blurry vision, instead of using their precious time bickering and/or investigating less vital issues as that stupid "hello garci" thing, fraternity hazings, human rights violations and such, perhaps they can not but see the real problem, no matter how hazy they would appear to their myopic eyes. Perhaps we can then be in business, right?
