Steven Mace
04-18-2002, 08:59 PM
Friday, April 19, 2002
Entry of foreign gun assemblers godsend for paltik manufacturers
By Johnna Villaviray
HE paltik (guns assembled in illegal, backyard shops) makers of Danao City now have a chance to go legit and even make their mark in the world market.
An executive order signed by President Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday allows foreign arms manufacturers to set up factories in the Philippines.
EO 95 removes weapons manufacturing from the Fourth Regular Fo-reign Investment Negative List, government’s compilation of banned business ventures.
The amendment opens the “manufacture, repair, storage and or distribution” of military hardware such as guns and ammunition, military ordnances, missiles, space and combat vessels and military communications to foreign-owned companies.
The arms makers’ products will be mostly for export, according to Ac-ting Press Secretary Silvestre Afable.
Opening the arms trade to foreign players would help Filipino underground gunsmiths to “go mainstream,” Afable said.
The paltik makers “can get foreign partners,” he said.
Allowing foreign gun makers to operate here would enable the country to take advantage of the need for weapons and ammunition and military equipment and its parts, Afable said.
“We’ve determined that it’s one area where we can be competitive,” Afable said, noting the demands in neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.
He said the EO is basically an attempt to “avail of the markets being tapped by other countries in the region.”
Afable assured that the move to spur the local arms trade would not be another source of weapons and ammunition for criminal and terrorist groups such as the Abu Sayyaf.
The EO states that interested foreign companies must first secure authorization from the Defense secretary.
The authorization request should also specify the “extent of foreign equity ownership” as well as the percentage of the output the firm intends to export.
The EO, however, did not specify how much of the output would need to be exported.
Afable said these conditions should be enough to satisfy sectors that might think that moves to develop the local defense industry are part of military operations against insurgents or homegrown terrorist groups.
“This doesn’t have any security implications. It’s part of the economic policy to expand exports, generate, and to make our economy more competitive,” he said.
Afable noted that the only significant player in the local defense sector is the military and the Defense department.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2002/apr/19/top_stories/20020419top5.html
Steve Mace
Entry of foreign gun assemblers godsend for paltik manufacturers
By Johnna Villaviray
HE paltik (guns assembled in illegal, backyard shops) makers of Danao City now have a chance to go legit and even make their mark in the world market.
An executive order signed by President Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday allows foreign arms manufacturers to set up factories in the Philippines.
EO 95 removes weapons manufacturing from the Fourth Regular Fo-reign Investment Negative List, government’s compilation of banned business ventures.
The amendment opens the “manufacture, repair, storage and or distribution” of military hardware such as guns and ammunition, military ordnances, missiles, space and combat vessels and military communications to foreign-owned companies.
The arms makers’ products will be mostly for export, according to Ac-ting Press Secretary Silvestre Afable.
Opening the arms trade to foreign players would help Filipino underground gunsmiths to “go mainstream,” Afable said.
The paltik makers “can get foreign partners,” he said.
Allowing foreign gun makers to operate here would enable the country to take advantage of the need for weapons and ammunition and military equipment and its parts, Afable said.
“We’ve determined that it’s one area where we can be competitive,” Afable said, noting the demands in neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.
He said the EO is basically an attempt to “avail of the markets being tapped by other countries in the region.”
Afable assured that the move to spur the local arms trade would not be another source of weapons and ammunition for criminal and terrorist groups such as the Abu Sayyaf.
The EO states that interested foreign companies must first secure authorization from the Defense secretary.
The authorization request should also specify the “extent of foreign equity ownership” as well as the percentage of the output the firm intends to export.
The EO, however, did not specify how much of the output would need to be exported.
Afable said these conditions should be enough to satisfy sectors that might think that moves to develop the local defense industry are part of military operations against insurgents or homegrown terrorist groups.
“This doesn’t have any security implications. It’s part of the economic policy to expand exports, generate, and to make our economy more competitive,” he said.
Afable noted that the only significant player in the local defense sector is the military and the Defense department.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2002/apr/19/top_stories/20020419top5.html
Steve Mace