SEC says GOCC listing push in initial phase

THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has started work on a plan to bring government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) to the stock market after securing approval from the Department of Finance, with the goal of deepening investor participation and boosting the capital market, its chairman said.

- By Ashley Erika O. Jose Reporter

"We are still in the initial stages. Of course, we have to do the rounds of inventory of GOCCs. We already (secured) the go signal from Secretary of Finance [Ralph G.] Recto to look at the GOCCs that are listable," SEC Chairman Francisco Ed. Lim told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the Philippine Investment Conference 2025 last week.

For China Bank Capital Corp. Managing Director Juan Paolo E. Colet, the absence of GOCCs in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is why the stock market capitalization-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio remains low compared with most of the country's Southeast Asian peers.