Investment pledges nearly double in January

Project approvals by the Board of Investments (BOI) took off at the start of the year, surging 91 percent in January from the same month a year ago.

In a statement yesterday, the BOI said it approved P97.9 billion worth of projects in the first month of the year, up from P51.3 billion in January last year.

Investments approved in January are for projects in energy, information and communications technology, manufacturing and healthcare.

Driving the growth of investments in January is the power development sector with P48.4 billion, following the approval of the 603-megawatt wind project of Rizal Wind Energy Corp., which is wholly owned by 7 Balboa Energy Holdings Inc.

Other investments approved by the BOI last month are the P33.1-billion broadband infrastructure project of Converge ICT Solutions Inc.’s subsidiary Metroworks Construction Inc., Solid Cement Corp.’s P12.5-billion project and the P849-million hospital project of Allied Care Experts in Dumaguete City.

Bulk of investments approved last month are from domestic sources which reached P87.2 billion, up 70 percent from P51 billion in the same month last year.

Foreign investments, meanwhile, jumped to P10.6 billion in January this year from just P33 million in the same month a year ago.

Netherlands topped the list of foreign investors last month with investments of P6.8 billion.

Japan was on second place with P202.1 million worth of investments, followed by South Korea with P102.4 million.

In terms of the location of projects, BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said investments outside the National Capital Region accounted for almost 100 percent or P97.86 billion, showing the wide dispersal of funds being poured in.

Of all the regions, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) topped the list with P60.9 billion worth of investments in January this year, 213 percent higher than the previous year’s P19.4 billion.

This was followed by Davao region, MIMAROPA (Occidental Mindoro and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) and Cagayan Valley, with investments exceeding P500 million each.

“We are definitely off to a positive start in 2019 and it augurs well for the rest of the year as we aim to cross the uncharted trillion-peso mark in investment approval for the whole year,” Trade Secretary and BOI chairman Ramon Lopez said.

“Breaking a record is getting to be a habit as we aim to set a new mark for the third succes- sive year. And given the strong and sustained confidence of domestic and international investors in the Duterte administration, we hope to make it a yearly record breaking habit until 2022 and even beyond,” he said.

Last year, investments approved by the BOI hit an alltime high of P907.2 billion, 47 percent higher than the previous record of P617 billion in 2017.