The Bangsamoro autonomous region has welcomed the approval recently by President Duterte of the Investment Priorities (IPP) Plan 2020, which include the approved incentives for Islamic banking, and also listed the other priority investment areas for the region.
While the IPP mainly covers Covid-19 protective devices and medical equipment, the separate listing of priority investments in the BARMM would help the region rev up further its investment-ready areas in agriculture and related industries, such as agribusiness, aquaculture and fisheries, and infrastructure and services.
Mindanao has been pushing for the operation of Islamic banking, especially in and for the Moro-populated areas.
The country’s Islamic communities, a big concentration which are in Mindanao, due to its adaption of the core Islamic values.
The General Secretarial of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference said “an Islamic bank is a financial institution whose status, rules and procedures expressly state commitment to the principle of Islamic Shariah and to the banning of the receipt and payment of interest on any of its operations.”
Multiple sources among Arab experts and quoted in Arabic financial websites and social media posting said this definition may be interpreted as banking operation that “avoids receipt and payment of interest in its transactions and conducting operations in a way that it helps achieving the objectives of an Islamic economy.” The BARMM, however, is yet to refine the concept for Philippine application.
The regional Bangsamoro Board of Investments (RBOI), which handles the IPP in the BARMM and the dispensation of fiscal incentives for investors in the region, said the IPP also listed priority areas in the region also include basic industries, industrial service facilities, engineering industries, logistics and enterprises using the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) framework on trade and investments.
Also included are tourism; health and education services and facilities; halal industry and investment operations under Republic Act No. 11439 or An Act Providing for the Regulation and Organization of Islamic Banks, and energy.
The RBOI said the IPP is the government’s blueprint of priority economic activities that qualify for fiscal incentives. It said Memorandum Order No. 50 signed by the President on Thursday last week stated that the IPP covers the production, or manufacture of medicines, medical equipment and devices, personal protective equipment (PPE), surgical equipment and supplies, among others.
“However, the IPP also contains a list of priority investment areas for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. 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 enterprises], particularly in the BARMM, which is the most underbanked region in the country,” said lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman of the RBOI.
“The BARMM administration under Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim is grateful to President Duterte for signing the IPP 2020 in light of the economic hardships brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added.
Source Business Mirror