Duterte updates foreign investment negative list
Before leaving his post as the Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte signed an order updating the list of investment areas where foreign ownership is limited or barred.
In the executive order, signed last June 27, the former president maintained the prohibition of foreign entities in mass media except for recording and the internet business.
It also reserves to Filipinos the practice of professions, cooperatives, small-scale mining, operation of private detectives, watchmen, or security guard agencies, the use of marine resources in archipelagic waters, and small-scale use of natural resources in rivers, lakes, bays, and lagoons.
Also reserved to locals is the ownership, operation, and management of cockpits; manufacture, repair, stockpiling, and distribution of biological, chemical, and radiological weapons and anti-personnel mines; and manufacture of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices.
It also prevents foreign equity in retail trade enterprises with a paid-up capital of less than $25 million, which is way higher than the previous required paid-up capital of $2.5 million.
However, Duterte removed from the list the clearance requirement needed for the manufacture and distribution of products including guns and ammunition for warfare, military ordnance, guided missiles, tactical aircraft, space vehicles, and military communication equipment.
