New projects registered with the Board of Investments climbed 19.3 percent in the first nine months to P454.8 billion from P381.2 billion a year ago.
“After the record-breaking investment approval figure of P617 billion in 2017, the agency is still pretty confident of hitting its investment target of P680 billion for this year,” said Trade Undersecretary and Board of Investments managing head Ceferino Rodolfo.
“As of September, we are already surpassing expectations with already two-thirds of our year-end target and the rest of the year should be pretty exciting and challenging due to the deluge of big projects in the pipeline. We are just exercising due diligence to ensure that these projects comply with the necessary requirements,” he said.
Data showed that approved foreign direct investments jumped 196 percent in the nine-month period to P37 billion from P12.5 billion in the same period last year, with the British Virgin Island as top source with P15.2 billion, followed by Indonesia with P6.4 billion, Malaysia with P2.9 billion, Japan with P2.6 billion and China with P1 billion.
“Our FDIs are clearly feeding off on the momentum of actual FDIs as monitored by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas,” Rodolfo said as BSP figures showed record FDI inflows of $6.7 billion as of July 2018, a 52-percent improvement from $4.4 billion a year earlier.
The energy sector continued its strong momentum to top all sectors with P168 billion in investment approvals as of September, up 49 percent from last year’s P112.8 billion. The manufacturing sector sustained its robust outlook with P103.8 billion in new investments, or 185 percent higher than P36.5 billion in 2017.
Investments in the transportation and storage sector reached P102 billion, up 568 percent from last year’s P15.3 billion.
Pulangi Hydro Power Corp.’s P38-billion project in Bukidnon was the biggest project in the power sector while the manufacturing segment was bolstered by the approval of Petron Corp’s P82 billion investment in the condensate processing complex project in its refinery in Limay, Bataan.
Transportation and logistics investments grew with the acquisition by Philippine Airlines Inc. of six Airbus A321neo aircraft worth P19 billion to service international routes and the P11.8 billion investment of Cebu Air Inc. for five Airbus A321ceo units.