President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s aggressive but strategic promotion initiatives abroad continue to bear fruits as the Department of Trade and Industry-Bureau of Investments (DTI-BOI) expressed optimism to hit its P1 trillion investment approvals target for 2023.
In a statement, the DTI said the government has already secured nearly half of its full-year target for investment approvals after only six weeks into the new year.
Based on the latest BOI figures (January to February 9, 2023), the bulk of foreign capital is from Germany with P157 billion, followed by The Netherlands (P2.7 billion), Japan (P524 million), the United States (P509 million), and the United Kingdom (P194 million).
The renewable energy/power sector remains dominant, with P398.7 billion in approvals to date, up by 138 percent from the same period last year with P167.9 billion.
Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the agency still has P344 billion in potential investment leads that will be processed.
Pascual said the aggressive investment promotion efforts led by President Marcos are complemented by the country’s strong economic performance with a 7.6 percent GDP growth.
“And more likely, than ever, we may have 80 to 90 percent of the target even before the middle of the year,” according to Pascual.
The increase in investments, he added, proves that the Marcos administration’s foreign trips are working as investors from Southeast Asia, the United States, Belgium, China, and Japan have expressed a strong desire to put in more investments into the country.
The DTI chief also noted that BOI’s foreign investment approvals performed even better, accelerating to P163 billion in the same period, a 65,436 percent growth from the same timeline in 2022.
It accounted for nearly 40 percent of the aggregate total, with domestic investment nods taking up the rest with P251.3 billion, a 47.6 percent rise from P170.3 billion last year, he added Mr. Marcos recently sealed $13 billion worth of agreements during his five-day working visit to Japan.
Japan pledged to provide development loans for the North-South Commuter Railway for Malolos-Tutuban and the North-South Commuter Railway Project Extension totaling 377 billion yen, which is about $3 billion.
Mr. Marcos said the completion of these projects, along with other ongoing large-scale Official evelopment Assistance (ODA) projects such as the Metro Manila Subway Project and many more across the country, is expected to translate to better lives for Filipinos through improved facilitation of the movement of people, goods and services.