DTI expects investment pledges to hit P1.5t next year

The Trade Department expects investment pledges to reach a record P1.5 trillion next year on the back of more power and manufacturing projects.

Trade Secretary and Board of Investments chairman Ramon Lopez unveiled the target after the investment commitments approved by the BOI in the first 10 months this year breached the P1-trillion mark for the first time.

“It should only be better. It should only be more. The economy demands more business support,” Lopez said over the weekend.

Infrastructure, energy and power, telecommunications and manufacturing will remain the growth areas for investments expansion in 2020, he said.

He said that with full-year investment pledges in 2019 likely to reach P1.1 trillion to P1.2 trillion, the target of P1.5 trillion next year would be achievable.

Lopez said the country’s rising demand for business support would fuel the intention of investors to invest here.

The BOI expects large projects such as a new international airport and large power plants to register with the BOI in 2029.

“We’ve never had enough of power [projects] especially in Luzon. So we need to show that there are economic opportunities there,” Lopez said.

Investments approved by the BOI amounted to P1.040 trillion in the first 10 months of 2019, up by 139.6 percent from P434 billion generated in 2018.

Local investments went up by 78.2 percent to P709.1 billion, while foreign investments surged 818 percent to P330.9 billion from P36 billion in 2018.

Singapore emerged as the biggest foreign investor with P170 billion in capital infusion, followed by China with P84.9 billion and South Korea with P39.1 billion.

Meanwhile, Lopez said merchandise exports were expected to remain flat this year, while service exports would continue growing at a single-digit level.

“Combined, exports will show positive growth. For 2020, we expect exports growing by 4 to 6 percent withe the recovery of some sectors,” Lopez said.

Electronics and semiconductors are seen to rebound along with other sectors such as BPOs, furnitures and woodcraft.