The Philippines further opens its doors to foreign investors

Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte has signed Republic Act 11647, which amended the three-decade-old Foreign Investments Act. The trade liberalization law relaxes restrictions on foreign investments and allows foreign investors to invest in a local enterprise by up to 100% of its capital. They may fully own small and medium-sized enterprises with a minimum paid-up capital of less than USD100,000 or PHP5m if majority of their direct employees are Filipinos. There must be at least 15 such employees. The amended law also cuts the list of investment areas reserved for Filipinos to just defense-related businesses and small and micro domestic market enterprises with paid-up capital of less than USD200,000. The Management Association of the Philippines said the law would make the country more attractive to foreign direct investments.