Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno is now leading the charge against what he described as a “stale and outmoded 1987 Constitution†that has concentrated power in the central government in Manila, and widened the gap between the rich and the poor in society, instead of reducing poverty. He has organized a multisectoral movement, which is called Bagong Sistema, Bagong Pag-asa, that wants to shift from the current presidential-unitary to a federal- parliamentary system.
Read MoreThe ECCP was one of the 16 business groups that last year sought the repeal of the BIR-issued Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 54- 2014, under which claims for VAT refund or credit not acted upon by the commissioner within the 120-day period as required by law would automatically be deemed a denial of the application.
Read MoreEuropean interests in the Philippines have gone from strength to strength this year, with up-and-coming startups attracting funding from established European investment groups. As a promising emerging market, foreign investment has been mainly targeted at business and trade related startups. Carmudi Philippines, a growing vehicle advertisement portal, received funding from two of Europe’s most prominent venture capitalists, Tengelmann Ventures and Holtzbrinck Ventures, earlier this year.
Read MoreWhile we at European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) are still engaged in convincing the small- and medium-sized enterprises of 28 member-countries of the European Union to make Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) their new frontier, it appears that more and more questions are coming up whether this business philosophy can be continued or whether we have to realize: What brought us here, won’t get us there!
Read MoreHenry Schumacher, executive vice president for European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (ECCP) said that Cebu more than ever, is in a "brilliant" position exploit its strong tourism opportunities, however it has to fix some "uninviting" issues such as the high accommodation rates, traffic, poor sea ports, and unavailability of docking area for cruise ships.
Read MoreShell recently published the Marikina City Resilience Study, the first in the Asia Pacific, which tackled challenges and opportunities posed by urbanisation.
Read MoreThere is a whole lot of multi-cooperation between our two countries. We have also assisted the Philippines in disaster preparedness and on humanitarian laws," Sieber said. He added: "There is a trade imbalance but the Philippines is slowly catching up because of its diversified exports to Switzerland."
Read MoreBusiness leaders like John Forbes of the American Chamber of Commerce and European Chamber of Commerce vice president Henry Schumacher said they would have wanted the President to talk more on future challenges the country will face, citing recommendations submitted by the Joint Foreign Chambers and the Philippine Business Groups to accelerate infrastructure projects and ensure massive job generation.
Read MoreA further slump in the inflow of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the Philippines looms in the coming months unless the government eases its restrictive policies, the country’s largest business organization said.
Read MoreThe Philippines is clearly Asia’s present economic star. But, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) says our domestic economy failed to soar to its full potential due to the slow rollout of projects under President Aquino’s pet program Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Read MoreIn a July 14 letter to Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) nonetheless said it “commends the DOF (Department of Finance) on joining forces with the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs to strengthen government efforts to increase transparency on tax and custom duty payments and consequently a level-playing fled for business.â€
Read More'We meet with them every month and ECCP Vice President Henry Schumacher is a lead figure. We work together. It is logical since we are both from Europe,' Nelson said.
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In close partnership with government, businesses, civil society, and academia, ECCP passionately works to enhance the business environment for both European and Filipino companies.