TOTAL investments recorded by the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) reached P84.1 billion in the first four months of 2020, reflecting a 71 percent slowdown from last year’s P286.7 billion in the same period.
“The downturn is expected due to the Covid-19 pandemic where economic activities and investments are disrupted due to lockdowns around the world. We have to prepare for a V-shaped recovery with a Bounce Back Plan (of the National Government). The economy demonstrated its resilience, contracting by just 0.2 percent in the first quarter of this year—a better performance even if compared with developed countries whose contractions have been anywhere between four to seven percent. The risk of global recession is real but for our part, we are making sure that this is only transitory and we are already laying the foundation for our recovery,” Trade Secretary and BOI Chairman Ramon Lopez said.
Approved investments from domestic sources reached P70.7 billion, dampening by 68 percent from P219.7billion in the same frame last year. On the other hand, approved projects by foreign investors reached P13.4 billion, decelerating by 80 percent from P66.9 billion a year ago.
The transportation and storage sector figures reached P60.2 billion, accounting for 71 percent of the total investment figures. The rest went to real estate (P8.8 billion), manufacturing (P5.3 billion), power (P4.2 billion) and accommodation (P3.8 billion).
A total of 70 projects got the nod and once fully operational, these will translate to 11,055 jobs.
France tops among foreign entities with P1.5 billion in capital. Japan is second with P790 million followed by Malaysia with P601 million, India with P325 million and the United Kingdom with P156 million.
“During the past two months, the role of the BOI had shifted to providing support for firms—particularly those allowed to operate during the various phases of the quarantine period—to continue business operations and facilitate continuity in their value chain. While the actual approved figures are down, this is partly because there are investment projects which we have chosen to carefully re-confirm with proponents their commitment to pursue even in this environment. So far, the investors remain solidly optimistic about the medium-to-long-term prospects of the country,” BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said. (PR)