BoI, PEZA report strong investments

In first seven months

The Philippines investment scene is poised for recovery this year as strong new inflows are expected to match the P464.2 billion record high posted in 2008.

For the January-July period this year, investments generated by the Board of Investments alone soared 297 percent to P171.805 billion versus P143.226 billion in the same period last year.

This is on top of the P111.5 billion combined investments of the 124 projects whose applications are in the various stages of processing with the BoI as of August 24 this year.

In August this year, the BoI approved P4.9 billion.

January-July period this year or 57.54 percent increase versus P43.55 billion in the same period last year. BoI and PEZA account for 90 to 95 percent of the country’s overall investments inflow.

“We will fight and we are optimistic we reach our record high in 2008 at least. We will target to match the 2008 level under this new administration,” said Lucita P. Reyes, BoI Executive Director for project assessment group.

The national (BoI, PEZA, Clark Special Economic Zone and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority) investments target for 2010 is P345 billion. The country’s record high investment generation was registered in 2008 with P464.2 billion. Investments inflow, however, declined in 2009 to P314 billion following the global financial crisis.

Reyes said the BoI approved investments in the first seven months the year involved 99 projects or 14 percent higher than the 87 projects approved in the same period last year.

These projects are also expected to employ 14,715 workers once they go into full commercial operation. The employment figure, however, is a decline compared to the 16,343 jobs generation of the projects registered in the first seven months of 2009. –BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT, Manila Bulletin