Investment pledges nearly doubled in January, says BOI

The Board of Investments (BOI) said its investment pledges nearly doubled in January, reaching P97.9 billion on the back of projects in wind energy, telecommunications, and cement production.

BOI started the year strong after hitting a record-breaking P915 billion worth of pledges last year.

The agency has revised the full-year figure from the previously reported P907.2 billion.

For January, pledges went up 91 percent from P51.3 billion in the same month a year ago, the investment promotion agency said in a statement on Monday.

“We are definitely off to a positive start in 2019 and it augurs well for the rest of the year as we aim to cross the uncharted trillion-peso mark in investment approval for the whole year,” Trade Secretary and BOI Chair Ramon Lopez said.

“Breaking a record is getting to be a habit as we aim to set a new mark for the third successive year,” he added.

BOI attributed the growth to a number of approved projects, the largest of which is the 603 megawatt (MW) wind power project of Rizal Wind Energy Corp. costing P48.4 billion.

This is followed by Metroworks ICT Construction Inc., which is said to be building a P33.1-billion broadband network.

The project comes amid the clamor for better telco services in the country.

Inadequate services prompted the entry of a new telco player to challenge the duopoly of giants Globe and PLDT.

Then, there is the P12.5-billion project of Solid Cement Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cemex Holdings.

The project, a new cement production line, comes at a time when a safeguard duty against imported cement was imposed to protect the interests of local cement manufacturers.

Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said nearly all of the investment pledges for January were for projects outside Metro Manila, with Calabarzon accounting for P60.9 billion of the pledges.

Only P4 million worth of projects will be set up in Metro Manila, he said.