One of the country’s formidable law firms, DivinaLaw on Friday promoted the country’s competitive business atmosphere, backing the government’s push to entice more foreign direct investments.

“The Philippines is creating a business-friendly environment through incentives, streamlined regulations, and innovation-friendly reforms. Whether through CREATE MORE, renewable energy, fintech, or intellectual property protections, investors are encouraged to seize these opportunities to drive growth and success,” said DivinaLaw Managing Partner Atty. Nilo Divina during the recent launch of the Doing Business in the Philippines 2025 guidebook.

Produced by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) in collaboration with DivinaLaw and the Board of Investments (BoI), an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Doing Business in the Philippines 2025 guidebook features a reader-friendly summary of steps in setting up a business in the Philippines, and legal updates on relevant topics such as investments, incentives, taxation, and labor, to name a few.

For the government side, BoI managing head, Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo shared the government’s initiatives to promote investment and announced the upcoming release of the 2025-2028 Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP).

Undersecretary Rodolfo disclosed that the BoI is rationalizing the sectors that will be included in the new SIPP, noting that these will be anchored on the eight-point socioeconomic agenda of the Marcos administration.

The SIPP is a three-year blueprint listing key economic activities that can qualify for fiscal incentives under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE).

“In consultation with other IPAs, government agencies, and stakeholders, we are finalizing the 2025 SIPP, that projects identified have a high impact on job creation, value creation to innovation, upgrading, moving up the value chain, and providing essential support to sectors critical to industrial development,” Rodolfo said.

“So, for those who are not too certain whether their sector or project activity will be included in the next SIPP, I suggest that you work very hard and you work very fast to apply now under the current SIPP,” the BoI official said.

Meanwhile, ECCP president Paulo Duarte shared the efforts of the chamber to promote trade relations between Europe and the Philippines.

H.E. Massimo Santoro, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines, talked about EU-Philippine trade and investments and H.E. Christian Lyster, Ambassador of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Manila, encouraged the utilization of the Free Trade Agreements.

Also present during the event were Philipp Dupuis (Minister Counsellor and Head of the Economic Trade Section of the Delegation of the EU to the Philippines), and Atty. Bobby G. Fondevilla (Executive Director of the BoI Investment Assistance Center) and Mr. Ernesto C. delos Reyes Jr. (BoI Director for Investments Assistance Service).