Investments reach P270 billion in 7 months – BOI

MANILA, Philippines – The Board of Investments (BOI) said it expects the record high investment commitments to be exceeded as early as third quarter this year as the agency was able to attract P270 billion worth of investment commitments in the first seven months of the year, a 20-percent increase compared to the same period a year ago.

BOI managing head Cristino L. Panlilio said thus far, the agency has already exceeded its full year target of P250 billion.

“We have already exceeded our annual target of P250 billion. That’s remarkable. We will re adjust our target,” Panlilio told reporters.

“We believe we can hit our P304 billion all time record at the latest by the end of the third quarter based on pending applications,” Panlilio, who is also an Undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), said.

He said based on the applications they are currently reviewing, they will be able to hit last year’s figure by the end of September, at the latest. This means they have three more months to increase their investment figures.

Panlilio said they are poised to revise their target but are still studying what the new figure would be.

Likewise, Panlilio reported that investment figures this year are better than last year because the investments were spread out and not just confined to a few big projects. Last year there were around six big-ticket independent power producer administration (IPPA) investments that dominated the investments. This year, he said they have already de-listed IPPAs and the figures are now divided among industries.

“The nice thing is it (investment) is spread out to a number of operations. We approved and processed more. Last year there were five to six big ticket IPPAs. The only big one this year is Petron,” Panlilio said.

Investments were a cross section among mass housing projects, energy and electronics. He also noted a few agribusiness and tourism in the investment mix.

Meanwhile, Panlilio said the US downgrade will not affect existing investments here. “American investors in the Philippines are catering to what is demanded here by our consumer market. In a way it is not affected by what is happening to the US market because it is catering to the Philippine market .” However, he conceded that those thinking of just entering the Philippines may be affected.

In terms of exports, Panlilio said because the US is one of the country’s biggest destination of exported electronics, there will be a slowdown. But he said we can counter this by switching to other markets like Canada and Europe. “Exports may suffer a bit but it will be compensated by Canada and other European nations.” –Ma. Elisa P. Osorio (The Philippine Star)