BOI: Investments in PH up by 40% in Jan-July 2017

PHILIPPINE investment prospects remain bright as projects registered with the Board of Investments (BOI) from January to July 2017 increased by 40 percent to P294.8 billion from P210.4 billion during the same period last year.

Trade Secretary and BOI Chairman Ramon Lopez said the investment registration figure is a clear indication of the continued confidence of domestic and foreign investors in the country’s sound economic policies, and attractive business environment.

“The country’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals and support for President Rodrigo Duterte’s 10-Point Socioeconomic Agenda drove investor confidence to a higher level,” he said.

“Presidential visits and the agency’s investment missions abroad have increased the interest of investors, as they gained awareness of the Philippines, convinced of the country’s potential,” he added.

He said the plans of the administration to ramp-up infrastructure spending, the country’s demographic dividend, highly-skilled workforce, and the strategic location of the Philippines makes it attractive to investors.

Employment generation for the seven-month period reached 58,758, an increase of 57 percent from 37,487 in the same period in 2016. Number of projects approved also went up by 40 percent to 268 this year from 192 in 2016.

Some of the investments include Mindanaobased projects like the P3.5 billion hydropower project of Alson’s in Maasim, Saranggani; the P2.1 billion hydropower project of Repower Energy Development Corporation (REDC) in Maramag, Bukidnon; a P1.5 billion hydropower project of REDC in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon; the P455 million corrugated boxes for export project of Smartflute Corrugated Packaging Company, in Carmen, Davao del Norte; and the P179 million Go Hotel in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte.

Committed investments in July 2017 reached P106.8 billion from 32 projects, a 347 percent surge from P23.9 billion in 30 projects in the same month last year. Among the biggest projects registered is the P79.2 billion infrastructure project of San Miguel Corporation which involves the construction of a 23-kilometer railway line from San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan to MRT-3 North Avenue in Quezon City and the 22-kilometer asphalt road from Bocaue Interchange of the North Luzon Expressway to the intermodal terminal in Tala.

Also approved in July was the P5 million online tax filing services project of Taxumo Inc., a Philippine startup focused on the development of an end-to-end tax preparation software that allows self-employed individuals and professionals to do “do-it-yourself” online tax filing from submission to payment. Taxumo is one of the many micro and small enterprise (MSE) project that the BOI has approved since the processing and approval of MSE projects was delegated to the BOI Management Committee.

Other notable projects for July include the P6.5 billion cement Bulacan expansion project of Eagle Cement Corporation; the P5.1 billion Aruga Hotel by Rockwell Land Corporation in Makati City; and the P1.8 billion Calaca, Batangas Liquefied Petroleum Gas project of South Pacific Inc.

Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo, for his part, said, “We are already at 59 percent of the year-end target of P500 billion and definitely, we are on course to reach, if not, top our investment target for our 50th Founding Anniversary.” BOI