MANILA, Philippines — Franchising guru Samie Lim is batting for the liberalization of foreign professionals running foreign franchises in the country and the granting of incentives to the franchising sector, which is projected to generate P50 billion in investments and P200 billion in additional sales in the next three years.

Lim, who is now chairman of the World Franchise Council, told reporters that the huge contributions of franchising in the domestic economy would be a compelling reason for the government to consider his proposal.

"Are there other sectors that can bring in P200-billion additional sales, P50 billion in investments and 150,000 in new jobs in three years," Lim asked.

Lim noted the difficulty of foreign-owned food franchises to hire foreign chefs. Hotels though are allowed to hire foreign chefs but not for those engaged in the retail business or the foreign franchises.

“In retailing you cannot hire foreigners,” he said.

On incentives, he said that by listing the franchising sector in the government’s Investment Priorities Plan, Filipino franchises can avail of zero duty on the importation of equipment and machinery that are granted by the Board of Investments to its registered enterprises.

The economic assumptions used by Lim in his projections for the franchising sector’s contributions to the domestic economy are based on the robust franchising industry in the country and the positive results from the staging of the Franchise Asia 2011, the world’s biggest franchising event.

Franchise Asia will be held here on September 19 to 25 at the SMX Convention Center. The Philippine Franchise Association will host this week-long event.

National presidents of franchising associations in 43 countries would attend the franchising activities.

It will highlight the staging of the International Franchise Expo on the 23rd to 25th, a one-stop-shop of the best investment opportunities from here and abroad.

The Expo, Lim said, would feature 150 international franchises that would attract estimated 50,000 quality visitors or 20,000 families that are thinking of going into business through franchising.

Based on his projections, Lim said these franchises are expected to get as much as 100,000 inquiries but only 25 percent or 25,000 would qualify but only half of that or 12,500 would really materialized.

There would be 12,500 new franchises that would be established in the next three years after this event.

Of the 12,500 franchises, he said, only one-third is expected to open 12 months after the show. On the average, each of these franchises is going to invest P4 million. That means P200 billion in additional sales in the next three years from the franchises that have materialized. These new franchises are also expected to generate 150,000 additional jobs.

“The time has come for the Philippines as franchise launch pad for Asia,” Lim said, noting that the reason for Taiwan’s franchising success in China is because they speak the same language.

“Franchising requires rigid documentation and Filipinos are good at that because we are English proficient,” said Lim.

The three-day expo will showcase around 500 booths from various exhibitors. There would be country pavilions from the US, Europe and Asian countries. At least 35,000 visitors are expected to flock at SMX Convention Center in Pasay.

With almost 10,000 square meters of exhibit space, the International Franchise Expo will feature best business opportunities ranging from new/promising franchise concepts to established / successful brands in the food, retail and

service categories -- both homegrown and international and from micro to large investment levels.