BOI woos investors in cold chain

MANILA, Philippines — The Board of Investments (BOI) is set to hold a series of roadshows aimed at increasing the country’s cold chain warehousing capacity and attracting more investments in the sector.

In a statement, the BOI said the Supra-Regional Cold Chain Industry Roadshows would be initially held in three major regions of the country from October to November and the rest of the other regions next year.

Among these three major regions are Cebu, Davao and Pampanga.

The BOI recently held the first leg of the roadshow in Mandaue City in Cebu on Oct. 12, which covered the Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas and Western Visayas regions.

“The subsequent roadshows will be held in Davao City on Oct. 25, and Clark in Pampanga on Nov. 9,”the BOI said.

The Davao roadshow will include the regions of Northern Mindanao, Davao and SOCCSKSARGEN, while the Pampanga round will cover the regions of Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

During the roadshows, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) will provide the regional economic situation while the Department of Agriculture (DA) will present the Agriculture and Fisheries Performance and Cold Chain services needs.

On the other hand, Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines will present financing opportunities.

In addition, initiatives of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) through its Food Cold Chain (FCC) Project specifically the Cold Chain Innovation Hub will be discussed.

“A significant part of each roadshow is the one-on-one consultation between the prospective investors and the BOI, DA, UNIDO, LBP, and DBP,”the BOI said.

It said the roadshows are its platform to inform prospective investors on the recent legislative/policy developments such as the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act and the Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP) and amendment of the Public Service Act (PSA) that liberalized foreign equity participation in cold storage warehousing activities.