New investments registered at the Board of Investments (BOI) reached P294.8 billion in the first seven months of the year, up 40 percent from P210.4 billion in the same period in 2016 amid “strong macroeconomic fundamentals and support” for government’s socioeconomic agenda.
In a statement yesterday, BOI said this year’s 268 projects have the potential of creating 58,758 new jobs, up from 37,487 in the January-July period last year.
As reported earlier this month, the bulk of the latest growth figure has been attributed to the P79-billion Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 7 project of San Miguel Corp., a 23-kilometer elevated railway connecting Bulacan with MRT 3 North Avenue in Quezon City.
For the month of July alone, investments reached P106.8 billion from 32 projects, a 347-percent surge from P23.9 billion in the same month last year.
Other notable projects for the month included the P6.5-billion Bulacan expansion project of Eagle Cement Corp., the P5.1-billion Aruga Hotel by Rockwell Land Corp. in Makati City, and the P1.8-billion Calaca, Batangas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas project of South Pacific Inc.
“The country’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals and support for President Duterte’s 10-Point Socioeconomic Agenda drove investor confidence to a higher level,” BOI Chair and Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said in the statement.
He added that presidential visits and the agency’s investment missions abroad also boosted investor interest.
“What further makes the Philippines attractive are plans of the administration to ramp up infrastructure spending that is seen to increase economic activities, the country’s demographic dividend, highly skilled workforce and the strategic location of the country, which can serve as a gateway to the rest of the Asean market,” he added.
While the BOI cited some individual investments in Mindanao such as the P3.5-billion Alsons hydropower project in Saranggani, the agency did not provide any growth figures.
Mindanao is currently under martial law due to the ongoing clash in Marawi City. Investment pledges in southern Philippines suffered a 63-percent drop to P6.87 billion in the first half of the year, BOI data showed. Without disclosing the figures, it remains to be seen if there were any improvements as of July.
With this, the BOI is already 59 percent of its yearend target of P500 billion, which was set in time for the agency’s 50th founding anniversary.