Wednesday, September 10, 2008 BOI projects P10-B new investments in 2nd semester By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE Board of Investments (BOI) in Mindanao sees entry of P10 billion worth of new investments in the second semester of the year.
In Tuesday's interview, Gil Dureza, BOI director for Mindanao, told Sun.Star that for the month of July, eight new projects worth 3.3 billion have already been identified by the agency.
Of the eight projects, six are located in Davao Region, while the two others are located in South Cotabato.
"Among these projects include investments in energy and resort operation in Davao del Sur," Dureza said. He also asked not to name the projects, as these are still not registered with the BOI.
Dureza said BOI targets a 10 percent increase in investments for the second semester of 2008, as compared to the same period last year. He, however, failed to reveal as to how much investment was recorded for the second semester of 2007.
"The peak of investments start during the month of July down to December," Dureza said, adding that from January to June this year, BOI registered seven projects that are into processing, all based in Davao City. These projects, he said, poured in at least P30 million.
He added that from July 2008, two projects were already approved by the BOI. These are the Hogtech Corporation located in Cotabato City, and the Monkayo Commodity Corporation (banana chips processing) in Compostela Valley.
He said that BOI has already pre-evaluated three other projects, namely: A and J Fish Processing, with a project cost of P174.5 million in General Santos City; the HGG Robotics in Davao City with a project cost of P5 million; and the Chenshin Fish Processing project worth P15 million, also in General Santos.
Meanwhile, for the month of July, BOI officially registered the Peninsula Rubber Inc. project located in Zamboanga City, which total investment cost of P9 million.
On the other hand, Dureza claimed that because of conflicts in some parts of Mindanao, two investors, a Filipino and a foreigner, both engaged in banana processing, backed out.
But Dureza was quick to add that as soon as the peace and order problem will be settled, there is a big possibility that the investments will still be pushed through.
"Each of the investors planned to put up project on a 4,000-hectare land. They backed out because the project sites are located in conflict-affected areas," Dureza said.
He said each of the investments worth P6 billion to P8 billion.
"The investors are still willing to put up projects because they already evaluated business in those areas and it is very feasible," he said.
