THE Board of Investments (BOI) approved P1.07 trillion worth of investments from January to October this year, marking an 86 percent growth in its performance compared to the P576.21 billion recorded during the same 10-month period last year.
The BOI, the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) lead investment promotion agency, on Friday, Nov. 3, said it was inching closer to its goal of P1.5 trillion worth of approvals for 2023 after it recently greenlit the new P329.74-billion offshore wind power project of the Copenhagen Infrastructure New Markets Fund, an affiliate of Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
“The BOI hitting the trillion mark in investment approvals proves that the Philippines is heading in the right direction to become Asia’s premier investment destination of choice,” Trade secretary and BOI chair Alfredo Pascual said in a statement released late Thursday night.
He added: “Foreign investment pledges are at a record high. But the job is not done. Together with our other Investment Promotion Agencies, we will continue to work to generate more investments into the country to provide more jobs for our countrymen.”
Significant Leap
The BOI said foreign investments alone during the period reached P757.33 billion, citing that it was a “significant leap” of 567 percent from last year’s P113.49 billion.
It said that the bulk of these foreign capital came from Germany, with P393.28 billion coming from the European country.
This is followed by those from The Netherlands with P333.61 billion, Singapore with P17.07 billion, the United States with P2.63 billion, France with P2.04 billion, and the United Kingdom with P1.05 billion.
On the other hand, domestic investments reached P316.22 billion, a 32-percent decline compared with the P462.717 billion tallied in the comparable period in 2022.
The biggest chunk of these local investments will be in Western Visayas where P307.25 billion will be allocated.
The Calabarzon (Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Quezon) region follows with P167.11 billion, the Bicol Region with P162.92 billion, Eastern Visayas with 128.22 billion, and the Ilocos Region with P122.18 billion.
Most of the investments are in the renewable energy and power sector according to the BOI, with P899.79 billion earmarked for those projects.
Meanwhile, P95.51 billion are in the information and technology sector, P21.27 billion in transportation and storage, P16.37 billion in manufacturing, P8.94 billion in administrative and support services activities. (Alden M. Monzon © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
