BOI investments jump 93% to P299 billion

MANILA, Philippines – Investments registered by the Board of Investments (BOI) went up by 93 percent this year to P299.39 billion from only P155.417 billion a year ago.

In an interview, BOI Executive Director Lucita P. Reyes announced that as of Dec. 21, their investments had reached P299.39 billion, exceeding their P287-billion target for the year.

“This figure will still go up because we still have two more board meetings,” Reyes told reporters. “In fact we have a lot of pending projects that were already accepted but not yet processed,” she explained further.

Reyes said projects pending but are not yet officially processed amounted to P1.4 billion. She said these include five projects that will be added to the yearend total.

For next year, Reyes said 57 projects with a combined worth of P71 billion have already been checklisted.

According to Reyes, this year’s 93-percent growth in investments was achieved despite a sharp drop in the number of projects, from 230 last year to only 207 this year. Reyes said that there were many small and medium sized investments last year while this year the projects were more capital intensive.

In terms of employment generation, Reyes said there was a 66-percent drop because many of the projects that came in were in the power sector which is not labor-intensive.

Reyes said one of the last investments that they approved was the Gokongwei-led naphtha cracker project.

JG Summit Holdings Inc., the holding company of tycoon John Gokongwei, will be increasing their investment for the first ever naphtha cracker plant in the country to over $700 million from half a billion dollars.

BOI Managing Head Cristino L. Panlilio said the opening of the plant will lessen the dependence of the Philippines on imported plastic. “The manufacturing of plastic will be facilitated thus making it cheaper.”

“We can compete head-on with China the minute we have the naphtha cracker plant in place,” Panlilio said, adding that the plant is scheduled to begin operations next year.

JG Summit Oleofins Corp. is applying for registration with the BOI as a new producer of polymer-grade ethylene and propylene, pyrolysis gas and by-products such as fuel gas, fuel oil, and acid gas at an annual capacity of 925,537 metric tons on a pioneer status in Barangay Simlong, Batangas City

Panlilio said that the long delayed project will finally begin next year. “Construction will start in January,” he said. –Ma. Elisa P. Osorio (The Philippine Star)