BOI sees P290B investment pledges in first 7 months

The Board of Investments (BOI) reported a 30-percent increase in new investment pledges from January to the early part of July, reaching more than P272 billion, which is more than half the P500 billion target for 2017.

In the same period last year, BOI-registered projects amounted to P210.4 billion.

The value may even hit P290 billion by the end of July given that there are still more projects waiting for approval in the pipeline, according to BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo. Based on end-July estimate, growth would be more than 37 percent.

This would be a big improvement from the flat growth in BOI investment registrations in the first semester. From January to June, the BOI approved P188 billion worth of projects, slightly higher than the P186 billion recorded in the same period last year, according to data shared by the BOI official.

There are 245 projects registered year-to-date, the BOI said. Once these projects become fully operational, they would employ 56,056 workers, up by 50 percent from the estimated 37,487 based on investment registrations in the same period last year.

In the meantime, the BOI has recently finalized the guidelines for the 2017 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP), which was hoped to help drive new investment commitments from qualified companies. Under the PPP, qualified companies will be granted incentives, including a four-to six-year income tax holiday if they engage in business activities preferred by the government.

The latest investment growth figures were boosted by the approval of the P79-billion Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 7 project of listed San Miguel Corp., a 23-kilometer elevated railway connecting Bulacan with MRT 3 North Avenue in Quezon City.

The BOI said the project involved the construction of the railway line, which would span 14 stations, and the 22-kilometer asphalt road from Bocaue Interchange of the North Luzon Expressway to the intermodal terminal in Tala.

The BOI added that the road component was expected to divert northern provincial buses operation to San Jose Del Monte, decongesting Edsa and dispersing economic activities across the regions.

“We still have more projects in the pipeline worth around P18 billion and is expected to be approved before the end of July. We are looking at around P290 billion by the end of the month,” Rodolfo said in a statement.