Thailand Overseas Investment Center

BOI-registered investments up 17% in Q1

MANILA, Philippines - Investment pledges approved by the Board of Investments (BOI) posted double-digit growth in the first quarter from a year ago, supported by registrations for big-ticket projects in the energy sector.

BOI managing head Adrian Cristobal Jr. said in a briefing yesterday that investments registered with the agency went up 17 percent to P54.62 billion in the first quarter this year from P46.77 billion last year.

The investment pledges were made for a total of 59 projects and are expected to generate 18,174 jobs, 65 percent higher than last year’s 11,636 jobs.

Cristobal attributed the increase in investment pledges to big-ticket projects in the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector which generated P13.76 billion worth of investments, 30 percent higher than the previous year’s P10.54 billion.

The manufacturing sector also contributed to the increase as it posted more than 500 percent year-on-year uptick in investments to P12.90 billion.

Cristobal said the government’s manufacturing resurgence program has helped attract more investments in the sector.

Other sectors which contributed to the higher investment pledges for the first quarter were transportation and storage with P10.48 billion and real estate activities with P9.09 billion.

Of the total investments approved, the bulk or 96 percent amounting to P52.25 billion came from local investors, while the balance of four percent worth P2.38 billion was accounted for by foreign sources.

“BOI in the past decade has catered more to domestic projects… It shows there is strong domestic confidence among Filipino or firms that are already here. A bulk of foreign investments coming in go to export processing zones. They are usually for exports,” Cristobal said.

Out of the total foreign investment pledges in the first quarter, Singapore accounted for 59 percent or P1.41 billion.

Other countries with significant investment contributions for the period are British Virgin Islands (P877.75 million), People’s Republic of China (P31.19 million), Cooks Island (P8.87 million), Denmark (P8.87 million), Norway (P8.83 million), Bermuda (P 8.82 million), Japan (P 8.77 million), Germany (P7.77million), United Kingdom (P4 million) and India (P3.37 million).

In terms of location of projects, Region 4 received the biggest share of investments at P13.47 billion.

The National Capital Region came in second with P8.62 billion worth of investment projects followed by Region 6 with P7.49 billion, Region 7 with P6.86 billion, and Region 10 with P5.22 billion.

For the rest of the year, the BOI expects continued growth in investments.

“We don’t have a target for this year. What we are looking for are quality of investments and quality of jobs but of course, we want to see increase in investments,” Cristobal said.

Last year, investment pledges with the BOI dropped 24 percent to P354.76 billion from P466.03 billion in 2013.

CR:http://www.philstar.com/business/2015/04/11/1442424/boi-registered-investments-17-q1