Investment pledges received by the Board of Investments crossed the P500-billion mark in the first five months, boosting the agency’s confidence it would achieve the P1.5-trillion full-year target set by the Department of Trade and Industry.
BOI managing head and DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said over the weekend the approved investments registered with the BOI climbed by 172.3 percent in the five-month period to P560.2 billion from P205.72 billion in the same period last year on the back of major foreign investments in renewable energy projects.
“Majority of the investment leads and approved investments are renewable energy projects. For the investments leads, at least half of that are RE,” Rodolfo said, referring to wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric power projects.
Data from the BOI showed that among the biggest investments are wind farms in Cavite, Negros Occidental and Guimaras Island.
Other approved renewable energy projects are a hydro power project in Kalinga and Apayao and a solar power project in Isabela.
Rodolfo said the Department of Energy endorsed the renewable power projects to the BOI.
“The DOE does not, anymore, endorse coal-fired power projects,” he said.
The BOI said of the total investment pledges from January to May, foreign investment approvals accounted for P403.86 billion, up by 7,075 percent from P5.62 billion in the same period last year.
Local investment commitments fell 21.86 percent to P156.35 billion from P200.1 billion a year earlier.
Expected employment from the 114 investment projects is about 21,151 jobs, up from 12,451 in 2022.
The DTI and BOI revised the 2023 investment forecast to P1.5 trillion, or 50 percent higher than original target of P1 trillion due to a robust pipeline of investment leads, including those generated through the foreign trips of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
BOI is one of the major investment promotion agencies that provide fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to both foreign and local investors.
Other IPAs are the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Clark Development Corp., Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan and BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that total investment approvals by the IPAs reached P480 billion in the first quarter, up 151 percent from a year ago.
