13/06/2014 (BusinessWorld Online Edition) - Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte has assured two Malaysian investors that he will help protect their capital if they pursue a palm plantation project in the city.

Mr. Duterte said he will talk to indigenous communities whose areas will be among those proposed for the project particularly in the city’s hinterlands. “I will guarantee them that they will not be disturbed,” said Mr. Duterte, who is known for his hard stance against criminality.

Ivan C. Cortez, officer-in-charge of the Davao City Investment and Promotion Center, said the two Malaysian companies want to develop about 50,000 hectares in Davao City to make a plantation that will produce palm oil. “We suggest to them that they may set up (the plantation) in agriculture areas such as Calinan, Marilog, Paquibato and Baguio,” said Mr. Cortez, who declined to identify the companies that sought the assistance of his office in looking for possible plantation areas.

He added that he told the companies that investing in the rural areas of the city will result in added incentives as there are more tax exemptions provided to them, like five-year exemption in the payment of real property taxes.

In urban sections of the city, exemption on the payment of real property taxes lasts only three years. Mr. Cortez said the city government is pushing for investment in palm oil production because it has the area that it can offer to investors. Last year, a group of South Korean investors also visited the city for the same purpose, but then acting head of the City Agriculturist Office, Valente D. Turtur, said the plan did not materialize.

In the last five years, the city government has been pushing for investments in agriculture, among the sectors it has identified as priority investment areas. Among the crops being pushed are cacao, coffee, oil palm and rice. -- C.Q. Francisco