Saturday, January 05, 2008 MBC cites investors on Mindanao performance
THE Mindanao Business Council (MBC) has lauded the local investors for their confidence in putting up projects and their remarkable contribution to Mindanao's total investment performance.
"Most of those registered with the Bureau of Investments (BOI) were coming from local investors," said Vicente T. Lao, Chairperson of the Mindanao Business Council (MBC).
A total investment of P4.315 billion from 18 projects have been registered with the BOI and the Phividec Industrial Estate (PIE) in the first half of the year, posting a 133.8 percent increase in investment performance of the island.
Posting the biggest investment of P2.792 billon was Southern Mindanao, followed by those from the PIE, Northern Mindanao, most of which came from existing establishments undergoing expansion or rehabilitation of their business operations, Lao said.
P3.34 billion or 97 percent of the total investments came from local investors posting a 168.9 percent increase for the period. Foreign investments, however, went down by about 80 percent, from P603.55 million in the first semester of 2006 to P115 million in the same period of 2007.
Lao said the bulk of foreign investments came from Chinese investors on mineral exploration projects, particularly, chromite ore with tie up ventures from the local mining corporations in the municipalities of Loreto and San Jose in Dinagat Island, while others came from Japanese investors who are into activated carbon manufacturing and South Koreans who are operating in the coco peat industry.
The power generation sector got the biggest share of P2.66 billion. This was followed by the mining sector on the exploration of chromite ore, sand and concentrates, which had a total value of P333.354 million or 10 percent while processed fruits and vegetables, processed meat and investments in cold storage facility contributed a share of 3 percent each in the total investments. (PR)
