Investment projects approved by the Board of Investments jumped 39.5 percent this year to P616.7 billion, the highest in the agency’s 50-year history.
Data showed the 2017 figure was higher than P442 billion worth of projects approved by the BoI in 2016.
“This validates business confidence in President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic programs to ensure inclusive growth and shared prosperity for the country. The influx of investments is definitely steamrolling, as we are expecting sustained higher investments for the next five year,” said Trade Secretary and BoI chairman Ramon Lopez.
The full-year investments record also exceeded by 23.5 percent the P500-billion target the agency set for 2017. It topped the previous record of P570.1 billion in 1997, mainly from investments with the privatization and deregulation of public utilities.
The BoI approved 426 projects this year, up 13 percent from 378 projects in 2016. These projects are expected to generate 76,065 jobs, up from 67,634 jobs last year.
“The momentum of our 6.9-percent GDP [gross domestic product] growth in the third quarter and 6.7 percent overall growth for the first nine months have definitely carried over in the fourth quarter, investment-wise and further boosted with the frenzied economic activity given the holiday season,” Lopez said.
Trade Undersecretary and BoI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said the surge in investments for the year were led by the designation of focused strategic sectors under the 2017 Investments Priorities Plan, infrastructure and power projects and the strong growth of domestic demand.
With manufacturing listed in the 2017 IPP, investments were mostly in key manufacturing industries such as cement, sugar and petrochemicals.
Investments in the manufacturing sector increased more than three-folds to P96 billion in 2017 from only P27 billion in 2015 and were 95 percent higher than P49.259 billion reported in 2016.
The manufacturing sector was the third top performing sector this year. Power and energy projects remained as the top performing sector with P268.168 billion in approved investments, followed by infrastructure and PPP projects with P127.658 billion.
Real estate and mass housing projects ranked as fourth top performing industry with P86 billion, while transportation and logistics came in fifth with P15.909 billion.
“The increase in infrastructure projects this year supports the BoI’s push for the growth in economic activities outside Metro Manila and the ‘Build, Build, Build’ or the massive infrastructure program of the administration,” Rodolfo said.
“While BoI incentives are directed for strategic domestic projects, a number of foreign investment projects also registered with BoI,” he said.
Japan was the number one source of foreign investment projects this year with P8.864 billion, mainly in green ship recycling, chemicals and glass manufacturing.
This was followed by Singapore with P3.497 billion, Australia with P1.996 billion, British Virgin Islands with P1.084 billion”•all in renewable energy and the Netherlands with P1.074 billion.
Meanwhile, investment approvals in Metro Manila went down by 53 percent especially in the National Capital Region while investments in non-NCR areas jumped 65 percent.
Calabarzon was the number one destination for BoI-registered investments with P294.6 billion or 48 percent of the total. Central Luzon followed with P123.3 billion while NCR ranked third with P44.3 billion.