THE Davao City Investment and Promotion Center (DCIPC) has partnered with Punongbayan & Aurallo (P&A) to study and propose changes to the city's Investment Code for a positive appeal to economic and business investors.
However, they are yet to announce the completion of the investment code.
In a “Business Matters” press conference at Hukad restaurant in Ayala Malls Abreeza, earlier this week, Christian Cambaya, DCIPC Investor Assistance and Servicing Unit head, said that they have been eyeing a five-year tax and at present, reviewing the code and coming up with the cost of doing business in Davao City.
“This is a comprehensive guide that could readily be accessed by our local and foreign investors. What’s in Davao, what we have to offer, our rules and regulations, incentives, and our tax structure here in the city,” Cambaya said.
He added that a proposal extending the three-year incentives to five years could reach Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte soon.
“The tendency of this is that the generation of investments, new and existing, will increase because we’re still looking at doing more attractive incentives. At present, there are only three years for business tax and two years for real property tax, but we might recommend to the mayor to make it five years to make it more attractive,” he said.
Cambaya further noted that the idea would cover large projects that are not in preferred investment regions but have a significant project cost and might receive tax breaks to help investors.
“We’re also proposing that those that are not included in the city’s investment areas should also be given incentives. There are actually a lot of huge projects coming in that were not included in our investment area. We do have a cap on project cost, and if they’ll reach that, they will also get an incentive,” he added.
Currently, the preferred investment areas in the city include tourism, property development, agribusiness, business process outsourcing, technology, transportation, and infrastructure.
At present, (DCIPC) recorded a total of P1.08 billion approved investments from January to July 2024.
Three major projects have availed of these incentives as of present.
“These are cold storage in Bunawan with a P706 million investment, Golden Señoritas, a banana chips processing and exporter with P365 million, and our recent Virtual Assistant for professionals, or knowledge process outsourcing with a total cost of P9.5 million,” Cambaya said.