The first-ever flagship tourism event, Philippine Tourism Investment Forum in Taipei, is featured on Forbes.com. 

Organized by the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Taipei, the Commercial Affairs Section of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office to present opportunities  and attract Taiwanese investments into the Philippine Tourism sector, MECO and PTIC worked closely with the Philippine Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) and the Department of Tourism’s Taipei Office in organizing this event, the first-ever international roadshow undertaken by TIEZA.

"The Philippine government is taking a lesson from the rehabilitation of Boracay that shut down the island paradise for six months last year. Now, the clean and safe state of its famous white-sand beaches is being cited as the inspiration behind government efforts to promote a slate of other master-planned zones for tourism development. And to generate the much-needed capital for those zones, Philippine officials embarked on a roadshow in October to attract more investment from Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
“In terms of the tourism, we want to make sure that what happened in Boracay does not happen in other areas,” says Pocholo Paragas, chief operating officer of the master-planned area’s lead government agency, the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority."
​
Click the link to know more on the Investment opportunities in the Philippines:  Forbes.com

The Philippines climbed 29 notches to rank 95th globally in terms of ease of doing business, according to this year’s World Bank report that took into consideration 190 economies.

Under the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report released Thursday, the Philippines scored 62.8 points, an improvement from the 57.68 points last year.

Read more: GMA News

Google Developers Launchpad operates a global acceleration program that helps empower global startup ecosystems to solve the world’s biggest challenges using Google’s resources including its people, research, and advanced technologies. IdeaSpace, on other hand, is a non-profit organization that supports budding tech entrepreneurs to develop groundbreaking products and services into successful businesses.

With the partnership, Google will connect IdeaSpace to top accelerators around the world to leverage their best practices and resources. IdeaSpace will also access Google’s global network, insights from the company’s Silicon Valley-based startup programs, and 20 years’ worth of Google research and best practice insights on building businesses, products, and teams at scale.

These opportunities will help IdeaSpace’s startup portfolio — which already includes some of the fastest-growing companies in the region — scale its businesses.

“Google believes in empowering startup communities around the world, and helping them leverage each other for insights and resource sharing.  We are thrilled to partner with IdeaSpace to support more startups and fuel the local ecosystem’s growth over the long term,” said Samuel Jeanblanc, market lead of Google Philippines.

“We’re excited to be a powered by Launchpad partner for the Philippines, because it represents an influx of talent, knowledge, experience, and resources into the Philippine startup ecosystem,” said Butch Meily, president of IdeaSpace.

Read more: Newsbytes.PH

Mr. Simon Shen, CEO of the largest electronics manufacturer in Southeast Asia, the New Kinpo Group, talks about his company's major moves to establish their major manufacturing hubs in the Philippines and Thailand. It's printer manufacturing business, alone, manufactures 27 million units per year.

With eyes on the rapidly rising incomes of the Southeast Asia markets, New Kinpo Group's Philippine subsidiary will list at the Philippine Stock Market in November of 2019, with their initial public offering.

Founded in Taiwan in 1973, the New Kinpo Group has grown to become one of the biggest industrial companies with estimated combined revenues of $38 billion in 2018.

Shen's group alone with 12 business units is expected to contribute $6.8 billion in revenues this year. NKG has 72 factories employing 108,138 employees.

Read more from Money UDN here

(UPDATE) Carlos Yulo gave the Philippines its first gold medal in the world artistic gymnastics championships when he topped the floor exercise of the competition in Germany on Saturday.

The youngest competitor in this year's event at 19, Yulo took the title with a winning margin of just 0.1 point ahead of silver medalist Artem Dolgopyat of Israel, while China's Xiao Ruoteng claimed bronze at Hanns Martin Schleyer Halle in Stuttgart.
Yulo consistently posted controlled landings to post an impressive score of 15.300 points.

Raising the degree of difficulty from 6.2 to 6.5 paid dividends for Yulo as he outperformed Dolgopyat, who came into the final as the top qualifier.
Based in Tokyo, Yulo improved on last year's bronze medal, which made him the first Filipino ever to occupy a podium spot at the championships.

Read more: ABS CBN News

Taiwan is eyeing half a million Filipino visitors at the end of 2019 amid increasing travel exchanges between Manila and Taipei in recent years. 

From January 1 to August 31 this year, more than 330,000 Filipino tourists visited Taiwan, representing an increase of 14% over the same period last year, Taipei's representative to Manila Peiyung Hsu said.

The increase in Filipino visitors to Taiwan was mainly due to the visa exemption policy implemented by Taipei for the Philippines in 2017.

"Our target is 500,000 by the end of this year, and I urge all of you to take advantage of our program giving Filipinos two-week visa-free entry into Taiwan," said Hsu, Taiwan's de-facto envoy to the Philippines, at a diplomatic reception Thursday night.

Read more: GMA News

"To harness these opportunities in tourism and tourism infrastructure, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) held its first-ever flagship tourism event, the Philippine Tourism Investment Forum, in Taipei on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019.
It gathered some 120 Taiwanese conglomerates and business leaders under one venue where the MECO presented to them the various opportunities in the Philippines for tourism and tourism infrastructure through a forum as well as in high-level strategic meetings.
The forum was organized by MECO's commercial affairs section, the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC), which also functions as the representative office of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry in Taiwan.
MECO and PTIC worked closely with the Philippine Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) and the Department of Tourism’s Taipei Office to organize the two-day tourism investment road show. 
The forum highlighted the attractive incentives, government support and numerous development and partnership opportunities in the Philippine tourism, hospitality and entertainment sector in a bid to boost Taiwanese presence in this industry.
Among the speakers at the forum were MECO chairman and resident representative Angelito Banayo and TIEZA chief operating officer (COO) Pocholo Paragas, the head of the Philippine delegation.
Banayo highlighted the numerous opportunities that the TIEZA is offering for the first time in Taipei to potential Taiwanese investors. Paragas, meanwhile, described the pivotal role of his office in promoting and revitalizing the Philippine tourism industry by aggressively promoting investments in tourism economic zones (TEZs).

...

According to MECO, among the flagship TEZs being offered to foreign tourism enterprises are Rizal Park in Manila, Mount Samat in Bataan, Panglao Bay Premiere in Bohol, San Vicente in Palawan, and Bucas Grande Island in Surigao del Norte.
The Philippine delegation said the government has made it easier for foreigners to invest in tourism and tourism infrastructure in the country with the passage of Republic Act No. 11262 in April. It amended the Tourism Act of 2009 and grants TIEZA extended powers to provide incentives to tourism enterprises located in designated TEZs.
In an email to The Philippine STAR, trade representative and MECO director of commercial affairs Michael Alfred Ignacio said among these incentives are income tax holidays of up to six years, five percent preferential taxes on gross income, net operating loss carry over, social responsibility incentives, and tax exemptions in the importation of capital and transportation equipment up to 2029.
Aside from fiscal incentives, tourism enterprises can also enjoy non-fiscal incentives, such as employment of foreign nationals, granting of special investor's resident visa, a 50-year land lease (renewable to 25 years, a total of 75 years), exemption from requisition of investment, and foreign currency transactions, Ignacio added."

​read more from source:   OneNews powered by Philstar

original by:   Epi Fabonan III
published Thursday, October 10, 2019 at OneNews by Philstar

MANILA - Local groups urged Taiwanese businessmen to invest in the country's tourism, entertainment and travel sectors during a Philippine Tourism and Investment Forum held Thursday in Taipei.

Manila Economic and Culture Office (MECO) through its commercial affairs section, the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Taipei (PTIC), worked closely with the Philippine Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) and the Department of Tourism's Taipei office to organize the tourism investment roadshow and strategic meetings with Taiwanese conglomerates with "strong potential" to invest in the sector, the firm said in statement. 

Conglomerates in Taiwan should take advantage of incentives offered by TIEZA, MECO said. 

Taiwanese companies in tourism, travel, entertainment and hospitality businesses were invited to "seriously consider the Philippines as its primary investment destination, to take advantage of the golden opportunities, government support and incentives and world-class travel destinations," MECO added.

International opportunities offered by TIEZA for the first time Taiwanese investors were highlighted by MECO chairman Angelito Tan Banayo during the forum.

Promoting investments in the Tourism Economic Zones helps in revitalizing the local tourism industry, TIEZA chief operating officer Pocholo Paragas said in his keynote speech. 

President Rodrigo Duterte in April signed into law Republic Act 11262, which amended the Tourism Act of 2009, enabling TIEZA to grant attractive incentives for tourism enterprises in tourism enterprise zones. 
​
The Philippines received the highest growth rate for outbound tourists from Taiwan at 55.42 percent for the month of June and 30.6 percent from January to June period compared to the same period in 2019 , MECO said, citing data reported by Taiwan. 

read more from source:  news.abs-cbn.com ​Posted at Oct 04 2019 03:03 PM

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said brought its largest contingent thus far of food exporters to the world’s biggest food show in Germany this week.

“In a statement issued Monday, the DTI said its Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) organized the delegation of 36 food producers and manufacturers to the Anuga Food Fair in Cologne on Oct. 5-9.

The biennial Allgemeine Nahrungs- und Genussmittel-Ausstellung (General Food and Beverage Exhibition) or Anuga, which attracted over 165,000 visitors from 198 countries.”

Read more: BusinessWorld