BOI-listed investments rose 19% in first 9 months

The Board of Investments (BOI) registered P454.8 billion in investment pledges in the first nine months of the year, a 19-percent increase that recovers the momentum the agency lost in August.

In a statement on Thursday, BOI said this was higher than the P381.2 billion pledges from January to September last year.

The latest listings were propped up by manufacturing and energy commitments, a huge turnaround from the 17.3-percent drop from January to August.

“Investor confidence in the country remains high. The Philippines continues to attract more investments because the economy is strong enough to withstand challenges on both the domestic and international fronts,” Trade Secretary and BOI Chair Ramon Lopez said.

Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo noted that the investment promotion agency was already two-thirds of its year-end target of P680 billion.

“As of September, we are already surpassing expectations and the rest of the year should be pretty exciting and challenging due to the deluge of big projects in the pipeline,” he said.

He added that BOI was just exercising due diligence to ensure that these projects complied with the necessary requirements.

The latest registrants included the P82-billion project of Petron Corp. to put up a condensate processing complex in Limay, Bataan, and the P62.6-billion liquefied terminal project of First Gen Corp. with a capacity of 5 million tons a year.

There was also the P38-billion project of Pulangi Hydro Power Corp. to put up a 250-megawatt hydroelectric power plant in Bukidnon.

BOI said the power sector continued its strong momentum to top all sectors with P168 billion in investment approvals as of September, up 49 percent from last year’s P112.8 billion.

Manufacturing also rose 185 percent to P103.8 billion in the first nine months from P36.5 billion in 2017.

The transportation and storage sector also continued on a roll with P102 billion, a 568-percent jump from last year’s P15.3 billion.