Chapter 4 Investment Climate Study of ASEAN Member ... - ERIA

transactions under category iii), and underdevelopment or lack of infrastructure suchas electricity supply, ports, and airports under category ix). 12The Philippines (53 incidents, 419 Japanese affiliates)The number of incidents in the Philippines increased in categories for FDIfacilitation from 37 to 42, particularly due to a growing number of issues related toimplementation problems for investment-related policies and regulations and laborregulations and practices excessively favorable to workers. Consequently, the totalnumber of incidents increased from 48 to 53, though the number of incidents did notchange in categories for FDI liberalization as a whole. The major categories are vi)complicated and/or delayed procedures with respect to investment-related regulations(16), viii) labor regulations and related practices excessively favorable to workers (10),i) restrictions on foreign entry (8), v) lack of transparency in policies and regulationsconcerning investment (7), and ix) underdeveloped infrastructure, shortages of humanresources, and insufficient investment incentives (6). The issues in the Philippines arespread widely across many categories: complexity, delays, and inefficiency ofadministrative procedures, arbitrary interpretation in implementing regulations, andcorruption under category vi), various labor restrictions under category viii), arestrictions on foreign entry into specific sectors under category i), ambiguity, suddenand frequent changes of regulations and standards and conformity issues undercategory v), and high turnover ratios, underdeveloped infrastructure such as electricity12 See Ando (2009) for multiple exchange rate regimes in Myanmar.210