Investment pledges climbed 46.5% at end-April

The Board of Investments (BOI) said investment pledges reached P286.7 billion in the first four months of the year, nearly double the amount from the same period in 2018.

In a statement, the BOI said the pledges, which jumped 46.5 percent, were mostly from domestic companies. Commitments from these firms alone grew 14 percent to P219.7 billion from the P192.8 billion registered in the four-month period a year ago.

Approved foreign investments, meanwhile, continued its growth through the period with a 2,224-percent surge to P66.9 billion from just P2.9 billion in January to April 2018.

“Foreign investors remain confident in the country’s business prospects as foreign capital continue to surge in the country while domestic investors remain upbeat as domestic capital continued its steady growth,” BOI Chair and Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

“Especially with the Philippines’ recent credit rating upgrade from S&P Global, even the Asian Development Bank now sees that the Philippines has the second fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia,” he added.

Singapore is the biggest foreign investor so far with P35.4 billion from just P38.7 million a year ago. Netherlands placed second with P9.1 billion and Thailand came in third with P8.5 billion. Japan (P5.5 billion) and the United States (P2.2 billion) completed the top five.

Power projects continued their dominance through April with P185.4 billion in approvals, up 78 percent from P104.3 billion in the same period last year.

“With the government’s commitment to ‘clean and green’ infrastructure systems, successive renewable power projects were approved by the BOI,” Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said.

He identified these as the P35.2-billion 506-megawatt natural gas power plant of Vires Energy Corp. in Batangas City, the 15-MW biomass plant of Cagayan Biomass Energy Corp. in Isabela and the P1-billion geothermal source of Philippine Geothermal Production Co. Inc. in several towns in Albay and Camarines Sur.

Rodolfo added these projects underwent due diligence and endorsements by the Department of Energy and Department of Environment and Natural Resources before BOI approval.

Pledges in manufacturing also surged to P44.6 billion, up 181 percent while the information and communication sector posted a growth of 9,669 percent to P33.2 billion. The accommodation and food service sector grew 733 percent to P8.4 billion.