‘Build Build Build’ draws Swedish investors to PH
Credit to Author: Tyrone Jasper Piad| Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2019 16:16:41 +0000
Swedish firms are becoming more attractive to the Philippines as an investment destination amid the aggressive infrastructure program of the government.
“The Philippines has never been interesting to Swedish businesses than now,” Swedish Ambassador Harald Fries said during the launch of the “Philippines: Business Open for Business” report on Monday in Taguig City.
The “Build Build Build” program is “more than just roads and bridges,” as it also focuses on constructing ports, airports and railways, among others, the reported noted. It also underscored the importance of gauging the Philippines’ growth in the coming years, as its infrastructure spending has been on the rise.
Earlier, a 10-year road map for the construction industry was launched to strengthen the sector, setting the spending target at P40 trillion to P130 trillion starting 2020 in the hope of sustaining the government infrastructure program, even after the term of President Rodrigo Duterte ends.
Ulf Wennblom, Business Sweden country manager, said Swedish firms saw a lot of opportunities with the Philippine building program in place. He cited infrastructure equipment and technology, urban transportation, road development and construction as among the fields for possible investments and partnerships.
Wennblom also demonstrated interest in investing in smart cities ventures, saying he would be visiting Davao soon for a possible deal.
“We are now focusing on supporting [the] regional capital,” he said, adding that Cebu is also on the list of their areas of interest.
Other growth areas in the Philippines are manufacturing, retail, and e-commerce and information technology-business processing management services, he said, adding that they aim to further boost trade between the Philippines and Sweden, which was up by 66 percent in the last two years.
“[The] Philippines respects [the] FTA (free trade agreement). What you agreed on, you always follow. The Philippines is [a] leader within Southeast Asia in terms of free trade,” Wennblom said.
But the Swedish officials said red tape in the Philippines remained to be a major barrier. Wennblom said 69 percent of Swedish firms are raising concerns on the matter.
This is why the Swedish Embassy supports the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) law which effectively reduces time allotted for processing government and business transactions, he said.
The EoDB law sets prescribed processing period: simple business transactions should be completed within 3 working days, 7 for complex transactions and 20 for highly technical process. “It is important that the [Philippine] government is paying a lot of attention [on the matter],” Fries said.
At present, there are 20 major large Swedish firms in the Philippines providing 30,000 direct and indirect jobs. They include Ikea, H&M, Volvo, Swedish Match and Sandvik, among others. Last year, they had a combined revenue of 5 billion Swedish Krona.
Swedish exports have been growing by 30 percent annually in the last two years, with 2018 recording 2 billion Swedish krona.
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