THE Board of Investments (BoI) said on Thursday that the government is working with the private sector to launch the Cold Chain Database by February.
“With the database’s completion, specifically on generating viable investment locations based on supply-demand gap analytics, the BoI can now fine-tune its investment prospectus for the cold chain industry,” Francis Peñaflor, acting chief of the BoI’s Agri-based Industry Division, said in a statement.
According to the BoI, the database will be used in aid of policy formulation and investment promotion. It will map out all the current cold chain service providers and facilitate supply and demand estimates and forecasts for cold chain services. It may also be used to detect cold chain service gaps for agricultural and fishery products, which are the main users of such facilities.
The database will also aid in investment promotion efforts by pointing to likely locations where services are most needed.
The official target for expanding the cold chain is 50,000 pallet positions a year.
InsightSCS Corp., developer of the DeliverE platform, recently presented its final deliverable for the project, a study called “Development of a Cold Chain Integrated Supply Chain Solution for Evidence-based Policy Making and Investment Programming.”
The project was the result of a memorandum of understanding between the BoI and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) and was funded by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and InsightSCS Corp.
National Policy and Regulations Coordinator of the UNIDO Project Mae Valdez said the project is a significant step in developing the cold chain industry.
“The project has been significant in generating relevant data for other programs being implemented by other agencies such as the development of guidelines for the Minimum Energy Performance for Sectors (MEPS) for the cold chain industry by the Energy Utilization Management Bureau,” Ms. Valdez said.
According to the statement, the guidelines support the implementation of Republic Act 11285 or the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act.
The EMB is also in talks with InsightSCS Corp. regarding the compilation of data on refrigerants to help the Philippines comply with commitments made in connection with the Kigali Agreement on the phasing out of hydrofluorocarbons. — Justine Irish D. Tabile