TRADE Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said the potential investment leads being processed by the Board of Investments (BOI) looks promising and may allow the agency to meet its targets before mid-year.
“So far, the agency still has potential investment leads of around P344 billion that will still be processed and, more likely than ever, we may have 80 percent to 90 percent of the target even before the middle of the year,” Pascual, who also chairs the BOI, was quoted in a statement issued by his office last Saturday.
Pascual attributed the increase in investments to the government’s “promotional visits” abroad led by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
The BOI said it has recently approved P414.3-billion worth of investments for January 2023 alone, “surging” by 142.9 percent compared to the same period in 2022 when it recorded P170.5 billion.
This investment approval figure provided by BOI is equivalent to more than 40 percent of its P1-trillion investment approvals target for 2023.
Of the P414.3 billion, the investment promotion agency said P163 billion are from foreign investment approvals, while the P251.3 billion are from domestic investment nods.
As for the source of investments from January to February 9, 2023, the BOI said the “bulk” of foreign capital is from Germany with P157 billion. This is followed by Netherlands with P2.7 billion, Japan with P524 million, the United States with P509 million and the United Kingdom with P194 million.
In terms of sector, the attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the renewable energy (RE) or power sector remains “dominant” with P398.7 billion in approvals. This is followed by: manufacturing with P12.3 billion; administrative services with P1.3 billion; agriculture with P901 million; and, transportation with P847 million.
With this, the Trade chief expressed optimism that, at this rate, the BOI will hit its investment approvals target for the year.
“With investment prospects being very positive, and as we continue to receive serious interest from global investors, we are definitely on track to meeting our annual investment target of P1 trillion,” Pascual said.
“We are not even through the second month of the year and we already have secured nearly half of our full-year target for investment approvals,” he added.
In 2022, the BOI recorded P729 billion of investment approvals, an increase of 11 percent compared to the P655 billion recorded in 2021.
Last year, the BOI said growth drivers of investments were RE, with 56-percent share in the total investments recorded. This was followed by information and communication, particularly in data centers and telecommunications towers, with 28 percent.
As to the source of investments in 2022, the BOI said 57 percent came from Singapore, 22 percent from Japan, 7 percent from the United Kingdom, 3 percent from the United States, 2 percent from Virgin Islands and 2 percent from South Korea.