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New Retail Trade Liberalization bill opens industry to all Filipino retailers: Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon says the passage of the amendments to Republic Act No. 8762 or the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, will open the retail industry to all Filipino corporations. Drilon, during the ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the harmonized version of Retail Trade Liberalization amendments Monday, September 20, 2021, said the passage of the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill No. (SBN) 1840 and House Bill No. 59 “comes at a most opportune time – when the country needs all the support to help the economy recover.” He said under the measure, investment categories were removed and that the minimum paid up capital requirement of $2.5 million or around P100 million was lowered to P25 million. “I am confident that this key trade reform will create more jobs for our people, improve our competitiveness and ease our FDI (foreign direct investment) restrictiveness. The country currently ranks as the third most restrictive out of 83 economies on the FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),” Drilon said. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)