Local Economic & Investment Promotion Office - Profile

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Friday, 03 July 2015 - 12:54:01 PM

Batangas City is the capital of Batangas Province and is seen as one of the secondary cities of the country. As a secondary city, the locality plays a critical role in spurring economic development in the southern part of Luzon extending to Region IV-B’s Mindoro Province. In the CALABARZON (Region IV-A), Batangas City is already one of the cities that pose economic potential given its annual income of One Billion Pesos from existing business establishments. Given the presence of the international seaport, there is much more optimism on what the locality can do for the region once the seaport is able to fully bring in new investors, particularly industries supporting the cargo terminal. Likewise, in the 2nd district of the province, it also plays a key role in spurring development to other municipalities which can help realize the Metro Batangas concept as pre-identified by the National Economic and Development Authority’s Regional Development Plan CY 2011-2016.

With the onset of globalization, the economic agenda of countries focus on promoting and sustaining competitiveness. The term competitiveness is underpinned on the ease of doing business in a country, complemented by the local government unit’s (LGU’s) initiative to encourage and sustain investments through a more efficient business registration processes, incentive mechanism (e.g. providing incentives and direct assistance in business registration), and lessening interference of the government in the operations of businesses (e.g. lessening corruption and harassment), among others. Given the pressure brought about by the competition to sustain investments which fuel economic growth of localities and the country, cities need to better manage its activities to be more competitive. With this in mind, the pressure for cities is to have a strengthened partnership with the private sector – business groups, to better gauge their needs and concerns, and find solutions for these. Along this line also, the city needs to strengthen its corporate function as imbibed in the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991.

In 2010, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 2010-113 which enjoined cities to designate a Local Economic and Investment Promotion Officer (LEIPO). The LEIPO is tasked to provide oversight on matters related to investments in the locality. Recognizing the significance of the LEIPO, Batangas City intends to integrate the paradigm on economic enterprise with the LEIPO. Thus, the Batangas City Government is proposing the creation of a Local Economic and Investments Promotion Center (LEIPC).

The LEIPC will help the city government fulfill its corporate mandate as defined by the LGC of 1991. Essentially, the Center, despite being funded by the city government will work with the private sector (e.g. business groups, academic institutions, and research institutions, among others), to ensure the business-friendly environment of the locality, which will lure in more investments. Another function of the Center is to identify revenue generating and enterprise development projects of the city government, which may be implemented by the private sector through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements.