EDITORIAL - Red carpet, not red tape

The economic team faces a challenging task: replace red tape with a red carpet for investments. President Marcos gave this message as he inaugurated the P150-billion expanded petrochemical facility of JG Summit Olefins Corp. in Batangas City last Friday.

He announced the mission to the two newest members of his official family: Finance Secretary Ralph Recto and former Robinsons Land president and CEO Frederick Go, special assistant to the President for investment and economic affairs. The two officials were tasked to perform “on a macro scale” what the petrochemical plant is doing, which is to provide jobs, raise revenues, inspire more investments “and unleash opportunities that will result in common prosperity.”

“The bottom line of their assigned mission is this: to reduce red tape that chokes industry and innovation and replace it with a red carpet that ushers in capital, foreign and domestic, and provides the path toward progress,” Marcos said. “It is my firm belief that the government should not be a yoke on the back of business, like taxing them heavily and tightly regulating their growth, making the ease of doing business a sticking point.”

Every president has made a commitment to cut red tape and improve ease of doing business in this country. Rodrigo Duterte often harped on cutting red tape, and set specific periods for acting on transactions with the government. These became part of Republic Act 11032, the Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018: three, seven and 20 working days to act on simple, complex and highly technical or dangerous transactions, respectively.

Republic Act 11032, however, had to be passed as an enhancement of RA 9485, the Anti-Red Tape Act that was signed way back in June 2007. Another law may have to be passed in an effort to attain President Marcos’ objective of rolling out the red carpet for investments.

Businessmen have complained that the periods specified in RA 11032 are followed, but at each step of the transaction. And there can be a mountain of steps per transaction, from the barangay to the local government to national agencies. Simply obtaining right of way even for critical infrastructure can take years. Businessmen have also complained about different and confusing rules and overlapping requirements of national and local government agencies.

The President can set the example by ensuring that there will be clarity and little overlap in the roles of Recto and Go. The finance chief traditionally heads the economic team, while Go in his new government role has been described as the economic czar. The two officials shouldn’t end up tripping over each other while trying to roll out the red carpet.