BOI: Investments up 18.9% in Jan-May
INVESTMENTS approved by the Board of Investments (BOI) increased by 18.9 percent in the first five months of 2018 to P207.48 billion from P174.47 billion in the same period last year.
In a statement on Thursday, BOI said approved foreign direct investments (FDI) grew by 29 percent to P7 billion from P5.38 billion in 2017.
Approved local investments rose by 18.6 percent to P200.54 billion from last year’s P169.09 billion.
The latest increase was buoyed by energy projects (P106.55 billion), transportation and storage (P39.81 billion), manufacturing (P19.35 billion), real estate (P14.535 billion), and water supply (P13.872 billion).
The amount for the five-month period improved on the P152.12 billion posted in the first quarter and the P153.1 billion in January to April.
Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. was the top investor for May after it increased its investments in the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program by P2.56 billion.
Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp. invested an additional P820 million in CARS, bringing the program’s total new investments to P3.38 billion.
“These figures are just preliminaries. We expect more foreign investments to come in as a result of the various presidential visits and investment promotion activities [held]in the past months,” Trade Secretary and BOI Chairman Ramon Lopez said.
“The Philippines has a growing economy. In fact, our country is projected to grow more than five times its current economic size and become the 24th biggest economy in the world by 2030. Together with this growth, we see stronger demand for many projects on infrastructure, services, manufacturing, and utilities,” he added.
While the agency’s current investment incentives are primarily geared toward domestic investors in strategic industries, the increase in FDI shows that there are opportunities to attract foreign companies to serve domestic markets, if only the relevant incentive tools are available, according to BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo.
“It is in this context that we are supportive of the proposed” second package of the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, “in order to make our incentive regime more relevant and responsive to the needs of investors in priority strategic and socially relevant industries,” he said.
The Trade and Finance departments are working on engaging stakeholders and preparing investment promotion agencies in maximizing the benefits from possible changes in the package, he added.
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