Investments

The Board of Investments approved P169.68 billion worth of investment pledges in the first six months of the year, up 318 percent from P40.63 billion year-on-year, Trade Undersecretary and BoI managing head Elmer Hernandez told reporters over the weekend.

PRIVATE SECTOR investments committed to the Board of Investments (BoI) have already exceeded the full-year target just six months into 2010, a ranking official said.

COMPANIES OPERATING in economic zones sustained their fast growth pace, in terms of export sales and employment growth, last May, official data show.

MANILA, Philippines – The country is looking at more than doubling the current investment approvals in a span of five years and attract P2.405 trillion worth of investments by 2014, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced yesterday.

A ROAD MAP to market the Philippines as an investment destination and accumulate P2.405 trillion worth of projects in the next five years was unveiled yesterday to guide the incoming administration.

MANILA, Philippines – The Board of Investments (BOI) is asking Congress for special powers in order to help counter the very generous investment incentive packages offered by the country’s Asian neighbors, particularly Thailand.

MORE Filipino and foreign investors participated in the local bourse last year amid the financial crisis that clobbered global stock markets, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said in a statement yesterday.

HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corp. will look at funding major infrastructure projects in the Philippines, as the private sector now takes the lead in building tollways and power plants.

MANILA, Philippines – Corruption and human rights issues continue to be neglected by companies despite ongoing interest in United Nations-led efforts to ensure ethical corporate conduct, according to the findings of a new United Nations (UN) survey that seeks to foster responsible business practices.

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday reported that 344 foreign investors from 39 countries availed themselves of the agency’s job visa program since April last year.

MANILA, Philippines – It’s final. Contingency projects of export enterprises given special incentives last year have been extended for two more years. The contingency projects aim to help them keep their workers while getting battered by a global trade slump.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has submitted to President-elect Benigno Aquino III a 100-day economic road map that aims to help the new administration fulfill its own economic agenda.

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Philippines went up by 18.6 percent in the first quarter of the year after posting a strong inflow in March amid concerns about the debt crisis in Europe as well as the wait-and-see attitude adopted by investors in light of the May 10 elections.

FIRST-QUARTER foreign direct investments (FDI) increased by nearly a fifth from a year ago but inflows in March were down substantially from a month earlier, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) yesterday said.

JAPANESE investors are looking at the Philippines as an alternative to China and Vietnam, the managing head of the Board of Investments said.

MANILA, Philippines – The impressive rebound of the electronics industry can be driven into sustained high growth if the Philippines embarks on an aggressive investment promotions campaign aimed at luring in the big multinationals, officials of a major electronics association said.

MANILA, Philippines – Investors are now looking at the Philippines as a viable investment destination when compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors, the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ said.

SINGAPORE – India, Indonesia and the Philippines have Asia’s most inefficient bureaucracies, with red tape a constant blight to citizens and deterrent to foreign investment, a survey said Wednesday. Regional financial centres Singapore and Hong Kong have the most efficient bureaucracies, according to the survey of expatriate business executives by the Political and Economic Risk…

SINGAPORE—India, Indonesia and the Philippines have Asia’s most inefficient bureaucracies, with red tape a constant blight to citizens and deterrent to foreign investment, a survey said on Wednesday.

FIRMS have pledged roughly two-thirds more investments to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) as of end-May versus year-ago levels, data released yesterday showed. Planned investments in economic zones amounted to P46.349 billion in the first five months, up 67.8% from the same period last year but slower than the 111% increase recorded as of…

MANILA, Philippines – Investments in the electronics industry are expected to exceed $1 billion this year with January to May investments hitting $418.53 million.

FIRMS in economic zones continued to post growth in export sales and employment as of April, data released yesterday showed.

PUBLIC and private economic zones in different parts of the country reported a combined 42.88-percent increase in export earnings in the first four months of the year to $12.69 billion.

Japanese companies have raised the high local electricity prices, the lack of infrastructure and the need to improve the tax refund system between Japan and the Philippines as among the major constraints to the exchange of benefits under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa), the first free trade agreement for the country.

FOREIGN investment pledges approved by the country’s investment promotion agencies (IPAs) surged twelve times in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago, the government said.

MANILA, Philippines – Europe’s debt crisis would not pose a large risk to emerging markets in Asia, including the Philippines, that have broadened beyond export-led growth and towards domestic demand, economists from leading investment banks said.

President Gloria Arroyo has approved this year’s Investment Priority Plan, which lists the industries that are entitled to fiscal incentives, taking into account the residual effect of the global meltdown in 2009.

MANILA, Philippines—Investors see the outlook for the economy after the elections as positive as the presidential candidates considered by the business sector as capable of moving the country forward are leading in the surveys, according to a paper by the Standard Chartered Bank.

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign portfolio investments or ‘hot money’ registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) jumped by about 65 percent in the first four months of the year as investors invested more in government securities and stocks despite jitters brought about by the recently concluded May 10 elections, data released yesterday showed.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) to the Philippines rose for the first time this year in February.