MANILA – A lawmaker on Tuesday called on local governments to establish their respective “green lanes” to expedite the processing of business permits and support the administration’s strategic investment program. 

Camarines Sur (2nd District) Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. made the appeal after President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. recently led the launch of the Green Lanes for Strategic Investments, which will hasten the process of securing licenses and permits both from national government agencies (NGAs) and local government units (LGUs).

He said the launch of the green lanes could not have come at a better time, as the President has just signed the measure establishing the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), or Republic Act 11954, which is a sovereign wealth fund that the government targets to use to invest in local and foreign debt papers among others to help finance its infrastructure projects. 

“Hence, our LGUs need to set up at the soonest their respective ‘green lanes’ for investments not only to support Malacañang Palace’s agenda to level up our EODB (Ease of Doing Business Image) image, but also for them to seize upon this splendid opportunity for their localities to cash in on this projected pipeline of (foreign direct investments),” he said. 

The Green Lanes for Strategic Investments was established through Executive Order No. 18 signed by the President in February 2023.

Earlier, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the green lanes will help the country realize the PHP3.5 trillion in investment leads from the recent foreign trips of Marcos and his economic team in Singapore, Indonesia, the United States, Japan, China, Thailand and Europe.

He said the green lanes will also help the Board of Investments (BOI) hit its PHP1.5 trillion investment approval target for 2023. 

Relatively, Villafuerte said the establishment of “green lanes” nationwide will improve the country’s competitiveness as an investment hub, considering that the President himself has observed that it took as long as three years for investment requirements to be completed in the Philippines compared just three days to two weeks in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. (PNA)