Registered investment pledges jump 200%

The value of investment pledges approved by the Board of Investments (BOI) surged by 200 percent to P51 billion in September this year, despite growing concerns about issues that may cause instability in the country’s overall business climate.

This brought the total BOI-approved investment commitments in the first nine months of the year to P286.44 billion, up 49 percent from the previous year, Trade Undersecretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo said on the sidelines of the European Union-Philippines Business Summit Tuesday.

Based on what could be seen in the real sector, Rodolfo said growth was being sustained and accelerated on the back of the strong fundamentals of the economy. That was evident in the growth of investment commitments by both local and foreign investors.

“Even as there had been outbound flows of portfolio investments, let me qualify that these portfolio investments are really erratic in nature. Furthermore, what we are seeing in the Philippines is that it’s not a purely a national phenomenon and it’s not unique in the Philippines. But in the real sector, it’s different because businessmen are seeing the continued growth of the Philippine economy,” Rodolfo said.

“If you look at the imports of the Philippines from January to August this year, these have been increasing and I think it will be sustained in September. This also partly explains why there are more dollars coming out. That increase in imports is basically driven by businessmen preparing for a brisk Christmas season, and building up inventory for their sales. We also need to look at the major imported components, which are inputs to raw materials to production,” he said.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez expressed even more optimism as he said that the total value of BOI approved investments would grow by as much as 15 percent this year, given a sustained investor confidence and robust economy.

Last year, the BOI approved P366.74 billion worth of fresh investments.

Over the past month, investors have been raising their concerns about what was perceived to be a growing instability under the Duterte administration, as new developments may erode the country’s attractiveness as an investment destination and derail the gains achieved over the past several years.

The concerns stemmed from the rising cases of alleged extra judicial killings and the tough talking President’s remarks against strategic economic partners such as the United States and the European Union.

Recent concerns included the proposed win-win solution aimed at curbing the abusive practices concerning labor contractualization and the moratorium imposed on land conversion.