Qatar-Kuwait delegation to visit Philippines to explore investment opportunities

By Peter AlagosBusiness ReporterA delegation comprising Qatari and Kuwaiti investors are slated to visit the Philippines to explore investment opportunities in the export manufacturing and halal sectors, an official of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) said.Peza special adviser to the director-general for the Middle East and Northern Europe, Joseph Rivera, who delivered a presentation at Cityscape Qatar 2018, said the Qatar-Kuwait delegation is also eyeing investment opportunities in the IT, business process outsourcing (BPO), and agro-industrial food processing industries.Rivera said Peza director-general Charito Plaza also “expressed keen interest” to invite Manateq and include the company in the delegation, which is scheduled to visit the Philippines from October 16 to 22.Peza is attached to the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and is tasked to promote investments, create employment, generate exports, develop the countryside, bring about transfer of technology, and to utilise idle lands and make them productive.Of the 380 operating economic zones across the Philippines, 74 are industrial and export processing zones, 263 IT parks and centres, 19 tourism ecozones, two medical tourism parks, and 22 agro-industrial parks.Peza’s top three locator investments by product sector are electronics and semiconductors (36.79%), IT services (11.16%), and metals and fabricated metal products (8.63%).The ecozone authority, which has cumulative investments worth P3.614tn ($706.2bn) from 1995 to 2017, has 10 existing Middle East companies under its wing. These companies are into IT, BPO, export/chemical and chemical products.Rivera said of the Middle East companies that are in the process of due diligence and registration with Peza and the Philippines’ Security and Exchange Commission, three firms in the food processing/export, logistics/ecozone services, and nanocarbon manufacturing sector are 100% Qatari owned.He also noted that two companies that have 50% Qatari investments are into garments manufacturing and export, and the development of retirement villages and wellness resorts, while another firm in the field of retirement and wellness is 20% Qatari owned.Among Peza’s goals is to transform its ecozones into ‘green ecozones’ and ‘green industries.’  Plaza, who attended the Qatar-Philippines Food Security Summit held in Doha last year, said she “always admired” Qatar’s advancements in building smart cities, and has expressed keen interest to build ecozones in the Philippines similar to Qatar’s Education City.With the signing of the Agreement on Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments during President Rodrigo Duterte’s state visit to Qatar in April 2017, DTI secretary and Peza chairman Ramon M Lopez said the deal will encourage more investment flows between the two countries.“Trade has always been a vital aspect of the good relations between our two countries. However, the rate of untapped potential business opportunities in the Philippines for Qatar remains abundant and gives investors enough room to diversify.“More than 220,000 OFWs are supporting Qatar’s economy, and it is encouraging that Qatar is now reciprocating our support to them with their investments in various industries in the Philippines,” Rivera said.