Wednesday, October 03, 2007 Investments in Mindanao seen to increase by 10%
THE chief of the Board of Investment (BOI) in Mindanao said Tuesday that the BOI is optimistic to catch up with the target of increasing the investments for this year.
Gil Dureza, BOI chief in Mindanao, said during Tuesday's Davao Reporters Business Forum that the investment leads generated in 2006 was placed at P13.95 billion from 41 firms.
He said from the investment leads generated to date, which is P17.942 billion, BOI sees more than 10 percent increase in investments for 2007.
"As of October 1, 2007, we already have a total of P3,972,000,000 investments from seven firms and projects," Dureza said, adding that these seven firms were identified as the Hedcor power project in Davao City; the Four Seasons Company project in Tagum City; the Woo Hoo Wood Pallet Export firm in Davao City; the ECA Resources Cold Storage in General Santos City; Citra Mina in all over Mindanao; Ten Point Fishing project in General Santos City; and the Yoo Chang Corp, which into coco peat and fiber project in Davao del Sur.
Dureza added that BOI identified nine firms and projects in Davao City, Panabo City, and in General Santos City which are on the process of registration. The total investments were placed at P491,940,000 to date.
Meanwhile, Department of Trade and Industry-Davao Director Teolulo T. Pasawa said that the number of investments in the Davao Region this year is increasing.
"At the end of September 2007, the number of the registered business names had surpassed with the number recorded in 2006. In 2006, there are a total of 4,530 business names registered with the DTI, while a total of 4,810 business names were registered as of September," Pasawa said.
Pasawa said DTI adopted the industry cluster approach in order to increase investments in the region.
"Recently, we had a meeting with the agencies involved in the industry cluster program, and we got reports from the different agencies. The wood sector reported that a total of P10 million new investments on wood processing plants were identified in Compostela Valley, while the mining sector reported that P449 million investments was monitored for this year," Pasawa said. (JGRS)
