DAVAO CITY—Thirty trade attachés from Asian and Middle East countries recently visited the city to sell Davao to the international market as a potential business destination.
Davao City Investment and Promotion Center chief Lemuel Ortonio said the attachés will be the “indirect marketing officers” of the city in their different countries to encourage investors there to trade in President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown.
Ortonio said the attachés are here to check on the investment concerns of Davao, as he presented the safety and security features of the city to ensure foreign investors it is safe to invest here.
“We presented the safety and security of the city because that is very important when we market our investment opportunities here,” he said.
Ensuring that Davao is safe will not only benefit the city’s business sector but its tourism aspect as well, Ortonio said, noting his office is leading investors to finance projects in the city’s suburban areas with its downtown “somewhat congested.”
Earlier this year, Benito de Leon, Public Safety and Community Command Center chief, said they will convince the Department of Foreign Affairs to encourage different countries to lift their travel advisories to Davao City.
Authorities here are better prepared to combat terrorism and ensure the safety of Davaoeños and tourists alike, De Leon said.
It is evident that the city is safe “since various big events happened in the city without any eventualities,” he added.
Local taxes rising?
Meanwhile, the city government is preparing for the possible increase of local taxes, 12 years after the city’s local revenue code was last amended.
Assistant City Administrator for Operation Lawrence Bantiding said his team is assessing how big an increase in taxes Davao will apply, and its possible impact on the business sector here.
If the local revenue code was amended every five years as prescribed by law, Davao would have increased local taxes by 20 percent by now, he said.
Bantiding said there is a need to increase local taxes to add funds to the 10-point priority agenda of Mayor Sara Duterte.
“The increase of local taxes will be a big help to the city. We can add to the budget of our education, infrastructure ad agriculture programs, among others,” Bantiding said.
New businesses in Davao are exempted from paying real property taxes for three years. Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, the Committee on Finance, Ways and Means chairman, said this is meant to encourage more investors to do business in the city.
“It has been noted that Davao City has a very low business tax compared to other cities [in the country],” he said.
Dayanghirang also noted the city’s budget would have ballooned to P10 billion if the local revenue code was amended in the last few years.
Despite the low business tax rates in the city, the City Treasurer’s Office managed to collect more than P800 million from businesses for 2016.
City Treasurer Bella Tanjili said they are expecting Davao’s total collection to go up to P7 billion after their real property tax collection in March.
Bantiding revealed that more than P200 million came from the top 10 business taxpayers alone, and P96.4 million came from the Davao Light Power Co. Inc.