Lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman of the Regional Board of Investments - Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (RBOI-BARMM file photo)
COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao's (BARMM) economy is expected to get a boost after President Rodrigo Duterte recently signed the country's Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) 2020, an official said Tuesday.
Lawyer Ishak Mastura, chair of BARMM’s Regional Board of Investments (RBOI), said the IPP is a blueprint for priority economic activities that qualify for fiscal incentives. It also contains a list of priority investment areas for every region.
For BARMM, Mastura said the investment priority areas include export activities; agriculture, agribusiness, aquaculture, and fishery; basic industries; infrastructure and services; industrial service facilities; engineering industries; logistics; enterprises using the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) framework on trade and investments;
Tourism; health and education services and facilities; Halal industry; investment operations under Republic Act 11439 or An Act Providing for the Regulation and Organization of Islamic Banks; and energy.
"We worked hard with BOI Manila to include investment operations of Islamic banks in the BARMM list in the IPP considering that the Islamic Banking Act was just passed and we hope that it will provide for more access to credit for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), particularly in the BARMM, which is the most underbanked region in the country," Mastura said.
BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, he added, is grateful to Duterte for signing the IPP 2020 in light of the economic hardships brought about by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. (PNA)
