The Board of Investments (BOI) saw a 66-percent increase in investment commitments from January to March to P138 billion from P83 billion in the same period last year, a top official said in a recent online briefing with Chinese companies, as he encouraged firms that were already in the Philippines to expand and diversify their operations.
In a recent statement, the BOI said it held a briefing with Chinese Enterprises Philippines Association (Cepa) on April 15, which it said was composed of about 90 member-companies, mostly state-owned. The group, which was established 20 years ago, is engaged in agriculture, manufacturing, construction and technology.
BOI managing head and Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo mentioned the latest investment figures during the briefing, as he talked about the latest developments in the business environment in the country, including a recently enacted tax package that cut corporate taxes and rationalized tax incentives.
“We even reached the second-highest level of approved investments in 2020 [in the agency’s history] despite the pandemic with over P1 trillion. For 2021, we hit P138 billion as of March, a 66 -percent improvement from P83 billion in the same period last year,” he said.
“This year, we got off to a strong start as central bank figures showed a 41.5- percent jump in foreign direct investments inflows with $961 million in January compared to just $679 million in the same month in 2020,” Rodolfo added.
Rodolfo also stressed the importance of the CREATE Act, or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises, which would give substantial tax cuts to businesses while also rationalizing tax incentives to make them more performance-based.
He said the law could help Chinese investors as it “provides the government with the flexibility to grant fiscal and nonfiscal incentives for high-value strategic investments including the longer period for enjoying income tax holiday and tax subsidies for key cost items.”