Investment pledges registered with the Board of Investments jumped 105 percent in the first nine months to P764.7 billion from P372.9 billion in the same period in 2018, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Thursday.
“The sustained high growth of investments is a proof of the business sector’s strong confidence in both the Philippines economic fundamentals as further shown by the acceleration of the third quarter gross domestic product growth to 6.2 percent,” said Lopez who is also the chairman of BOI.
Domestic investments climbed 54.7 percent in the nine-month period to P524.9 billion from P339.3 billion a year ago while foreign investments surged 613 percent to P239.9 billion from P33.6 billion.
Singapore was the largest source of foreign commitments at P170 billion, followed by South Korea with P34.1 billion, the Netherlands with P9.2 billion, Thailand with P8.6 billion, Japan with P6 billion and the United States with P2.4 billion.
“We are particularly pleased to highlight that the share of foreign investments in BOI projects have increased from just 8 percent during January to September 2018 to already 31.4 percent this year,” Lopez said.
Investments outside Metro Manila accounted for 98.2 percent of the total of P750.9 billion with projected employment of 41,862, or 38.5 percent higher than last year’s 30,218.
Data showed that in September, the BOI approved P155.7 billion worth of projects, up 50.3 percent from P103.6 billion a year earlier.
The Trade Department said the recent visit of a Russian trade delegation and the second state visit of the Philippines to Russia would create more business opportunities and closer economic cooperation for both countries.
Trade Undersecretary and BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said investments from the information and communications technology and power sectors accounted for 85 percent of the total figure or P652.9 billion. “This massive infrastructure buildup for more power and connectivity across the archipelago is critical towards addressing binding constraints to the Philippines’ competitiveness,” Rodolfo said.
“The development also complements the consistent growth of the manufacturing sector with P63.5 billion in approvals or a massive 190-percent growth from just P21.9 billion last year,” Rodolfo said.
He also noted the growth in the tourism sector with P9.5 billion worth of hotel and accommodation projects, or nearly a seven-fold increase from P1.2 billion in the same period last year.
“Tourism is among the biggest job creators in our country along with manufacturing. With the innovative advocacy campaigns of the Department of Tourism, the Philippines experienced an overwhelming surge of domestic tourists which reached over 110 million in 2018 and already exceeded the 89.2 million target by 2022 as stated in the National Tourism Development Plan,” Rodolfo said.