Despite pandemic, investment pledges seen hitting P970B

The Board of Investments (BOI)will likely end the year still with an impressive level of investment pledges approved for registration despite the uncertain business climate brought about by the new coronavirus pandemic. BOI Managing Head and Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo recently told reporters that they had approved a total of P905 billion in investment commitments as of the agency’s last board meeting. This, however, falls short of the BOI’s target for the year of P1 trillion. The agency is holding another board meeting on Dec. 28. Rodolfo, who heads the Industry Development and Trade Policy Group of the Department of Trade and Industry, said they were waiting for other government agencies to endorse the remaining projects in the pipeline. He deferred from saying what these agencies were. If the endorsements will be ready in time for the next BOI board meeting, the pledges on the table would likely add about P65 billion to the total, he said earlier this week.

“I don’t know if we’ll still meet the [target]. We’re not forcing it if it’s not really possible,” he said. Last November, Rodolfo announced during the online campaign launch of Make It Happen in the Philippines that the investment promotion agency was still “optimistic” it could end the year with P1 trillion in investment commitments.

In 2019, the BOI posted a record P1.14 trillion in registered investment projects.

While that optimism about hitting this year’s goal has waned, ending the year with more than P900 billion in investment commitments is still a feat, especially since the pandemic and the imposition of quarantine measures had dampened business and consumer confidence. These investments, however, would not necessarily be felt immediately, since they are still pledges and the realization of the projects will take several years. Although these are encouraging signs that hint at how confident in the future of the economy some big businesses still are. Rodolfo did not give a specific breakdown of the commitments, although the majority of these were infrastructure projects, including San Miguel Corp.’s P530.8 billion airport project in Bulacan. INQ