FRESH from a record-breaking P915 billion in investment approvals last year, the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) is off to a positive start in the first month of the new year with P97.9 billion in investment approvals, up by 91 percent from P51.3 billion recorded in January 2018.
“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,” said Trade Secretary and BOI Chairman Ramon Lopez.
“Breaking a record is getting to be a habit as we aim to set a new mark for the third successive 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 added.
Big-ticket investments
The approval of power development projects, especially renewables, led the growth in investments for the month with P48.4 billion driven by the approval of the 603 megawatt Rizal Wind Energy Corp. This was followed by investments in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry with Metroworks ICT Construction Inc. building a P33.1 billion broadband infrastructure.
Other big-ticket projects like Solid Cement Corp.’s P12.5 billion project in Antipolo and the new hospital worth P849 million by Allied Care Experts to be erected in Dumaguete City were likewise approved.
Approved foreign investments reached P10.6 billion in January from P33.1 million in the same month in 2018. Netherlands topped all foreign investors, mainly on its investments in the Solid Cement project. Japan came in second with P202.1 million and South Korea placed third with P102.4 million.
“We pick up where we left off as we continue to build and expand the manufacturing base on the back of a robust national industrial policy,” said Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo.
Region 4A topped all regions with P60.9 billion in investments, a 213 percent increase from P19.4 billion in 2018, as a result of the wind power project location. Region 11, Region 4B and Region 2 are the top regions with approved investments surpassing P500 million each. (PR)