BoI makes pitch for 200 projects worth P60B

The Board of Investments, under a program called “Invest-Mart,” said on Thursday, May 17, 2012, that it has put together a total of 200 projects, 91 of them in Mindanao, which the government will make a pitch for in a road show scheduled before the year’s end

The government plans to tap the financial clout of Metro Manila investors in funding 200 provincial projects worth a combined P60 billion, bulk of which will be in Mindanao.

In a forum on the Philippine consumer market hosted by the Philippine Stock Exchange and Asiamoney on Thursday, Board of Investments (BoI) assistant secretary for investments promotion Felicitas Agoncillo-Reyes said local investors based in Metro Manila had been missing out on some “very good” projects that had fallen below their radar.

Under a program called “Invest-Mart,” the BoI has put together a total of 200 projects, 91 of which are in Mindanao, which the government will make a pitch for in a road show scheduled before the year’s end, Reyes said.

“In November, we’ll bring all those projects and we’ll be inviting finance groups … to participate and take a look at these projects,” Reyes said. “They will be brought to Manila and presented to potential partners.”

At the sidelines of the forum, Reyes said the projects’ costs were typically small—about P100 million or so—but there were many of them.

Because of their small size, she said, such projects would not usually generate a lot of attention especially from institutional investors.

The 91 projects in Mindanao range from energy to agribusiness interests with some heavy industries, she said. Other opportunities involve palm, coconut and rubber plantations as well as some manufacturing projects.

Domestic investors are the ones being tapped to participate in the projects, either as partners or funders. Based on investment registration data at the BoI, Reyes noted that 95 percent of registered investors are Filipinos.

“We’re less dependent on foreign money,” Reyes said, adding that the investments would likewise flow to other growth areas outside of Metro Manila.

This program is being pursued with the help of the regional cooperation group of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Even on a global basis, it is now a good time to attract more investors to the Philippine consumer market, Reyes pointed out.

“Investors are convinced that the Philippines is worth putting money into. The world attention is on us, and the biggest challenge is to come up with more and more projects that we can offer to investors,” she said.

Agribusiness, real estate and tourism will be among the key sectors that will attract investors.

This year, investments committed through registration may increase by 10 percent, the BoI said.

Last year, the volume of BoI investment registration rose by 38 percent.

“There’s more appetite (this year),” Reyes said. “But it’s best to err on the conservative [side].”