THE National Bioethanol Board (NBB) anticipates that local and foreign direct investments involving bioethanol fuel will jump to $770 million next year, from $386 million this year.
NBB on Bioethanol Concerns Vice Chairman Regina Bautista-Martin said during the Ethanol and Biofuels Asia 2015 conference held recently that bioethanol investment in the country was “reinvigorated,” since the policy guidelines on the utilization of locally produced bioethanol were passed in 2011.
“Local and foreign direct investments have grown from around $206 million in 2012 to $386 million in 2015. It is projected to grow to $770 million in 2016,” said Martin, who is also the administrator of the Philippine Sugar Regulatory Administration.
In her presentation, Martin explained that these investments have sustained the dynamism of the rural economy where the plant is located. “Jobs are sustained, upstream and downstream small-scale enterprises have emerged, giving new livelihood opportunities for the local community surrounding the bioethanol plant.”
Annual benefits are received by workers and their families through the social amelioration and welfare program, which is on top of other statutory benefits afforded to workers under the Labor Code, Martin noted.
She said that the biofuels law was enacted in the latter part of 2006 and became effective a year later. But the 5-percent and 10-percent bioethanol mandates were implemented in 2009 and 2011, respectively, to give enough time for bioethanol investors consolidate-feedstock areas and construct the bioethanol plant.
The Biofuels Act of 2006 requires the use of clean alternative fuels, such as ethanol mixed with gasoline, which are expected to save the country P35 billion in annual oil imports.
“When the biofuels law was passed, several investors lined up who were interested in investing in bioethanol-fuel production and the development of sugarcane plantations in the rural areas as sources of feedstocks,” Martin said.
“What transpired in the past, the challenges and biofuel policy decisions of the Philippine government, have given policy-makers and stakeholders enough lessons learned in making the bioethanol program successful. All these are in tandem with the sustainable development of the sugarcane industry and providing a sustainable and clean energy for the country,” she added.