BoI mission to woo European investors

The Board of Investments (BoI) is set to hold an investment road show in Europe next month in a bid to entice companies there to invest in some of the country’s key growth sectors, including public-private partnership projects.

Trade Undersecretary and BoI managing head Cristino Panlilio said the countries to be visited would include Switzerland, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Apart from PPP projects, he said the Philippine delegation would promote investments in the shipbuilding, agribusiness, business process outsourcing and electronics sectors.

“We’ve gotten a lot of inquiries, but there’s nothing concrete yet. So we’re going there in September to talk to some companies,” Panlilio said in an interview.

Panlilio added that the BOo was still waiting for concrete developments on some investments that European groups had earlier committed, including those of dairy product manufacturer Grupo Leche Pascual, oil exploration firm Union Fenosa and wind power company Gamesa.

In an earlier interview, Panlilio said Leche Pascual was inclined to invest at least $10 million to put up a yogurt manufacturing facility in the country. Talks were underway with San Miguel Corp. on a possible distributorship agreement.

Panlilio said the planned facility would initially serve the local market, but could eventually expand to become the Spanish firm’s export hub for the region.

Union Fenosa, which already has a partnership with Burgundy Global Exploration Corp. for the development of Service Contract 62 in offshore Balabac Island in Palawan, also indicated plans to beef up its local investments, Panlilio said.

Gamesa, Panlilio said, was looking at some wind power projects in the country.