Philippines
In person, not just on Zoom.
I spent five months in Manila running market entry for a Czech software company. I came back with a working network — legal and tax advisors, bankers, EOR providers, the Czech and Slovak embassies, Czech Trade — and no current takers. If you’re a European company evaluating the Philippines, that’s the conversation to have before you spend months building the same list from scratch.
Why the Philippines is worth a serious look
The Philippines is competitive on talent, English-speaking, with a fast-growing digital services sector and a regulatory environment that has matured significantly in recent years. The EU–Philippines Free Trade Agreement is on track to conclude in 2026 — European companies that complete their entry groundwork beforehand will be positioned before preferential access locks in.
It is also genuinely difficult to enter without someone on the ground. The gap between written rules and how they’re applied in practice is wide. Entity structures that look straightforward on paper interact with foreign ownership restrictions in ways that take months to untangle if you hit them late.
Two traps European companies fall into early
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01
Choosing the entity structure before understanding how you’ll actually sell or operate.Foreign ownership restrictions vary by sector and by what you’re trying to do. Getting the structure wrong early doesn’t always mean you can fix it — sometimes it means starting again.
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02
Underestimating the gap between registered and operational.Registration is not the finish line — it is the starting gun for a separate sequence: banking, employment, payments, system integrations. Each has its own timeline. Most European companies discover this after they’ve already committed to an operational start date.
What I help with
I work with European companies at the point where the decision to enter has been made — or is close — and the work is turning intent into a functioning operation.
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01
Regulatory mapping.Which approvals, registrations, and compliance requirements apply to your specific situation, in what sequence, and what they mean for your timeline.
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02
Entity and ownership structure.Foreign ownership restrictions vary by sector and by what you’re trying to do. I’m not a corporate lawyer, but I know which ones to call — and I know what questions you need to answer before that call is worth having.
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03
Buyer and channel mapping.Who makes the purchasing decision, through which channel, and what the sales or procurement cycle looks like in practice — including the specific rules and timelines that catch European companies off guard.
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04
Operational setup.Banking, employment via local employer of record providers, payment system connections, IT stack, and government integrations — in the right sequence, so nothing blocks the launch.
The contacts are already in place: legal and tax advisors, EOR providers, banking connections, ECCP and AmCham Philippines network. You’re not building that list from scratch.
How it typically works
The right starting point is a short orientation — two to four weeks — covering regulatory mapping, entity structure options, and introductions to the advisors relevant to your situation. From there, the scope depends on what you need: some companies want ongoing involvement as they navigate the entry process; others need a specific phase owned end-to-end.
The first conversation costs nothing.
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