MANILA — American companies doing business in the Philippines remain optimistic in their expansion plans in the country, the 2018 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Business Outlook Survey (ABOS) showed.
The 2018 ABOS released by American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore on Wednesday noted that 70 percent of US firms in the Philippines will expand their businesses here.
The confidence of US firms in their business expansion in the Philippines is even higher than the ASEAN average of 62 percent.
About 30 percent of US companies in the Philippines expressed their businesses will “remain about the same”, while none has mentioned to contract their business operations in the country.
The 2018 ABOS added that 96 percent of US businesses in the Philippines said they hire Filipinos to compose 70 percent or more of their workforce.
Among the business environment factors that American companies found satisfying the Philippines include availability of trained personnel, adequate and well-trained labor workforce, availability of low-cost labor, and sentiment toward the US.
However, US businesses here listed top supply chain issues in the country which include lack of clarity on regulations and enforcement, corruption at ports of entry, inadequate infrastructure, unpredictability of Customs procedures from port to port, and unnecessary and redundant data as well as regulatory and enforcement mandates.
Meanwhile, aside from US firms in the Philippines, American companies in other ASEAN member states such as Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia named the Philippines as one of their investment destinations.
