The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Tuesday expressed optimism that investment approvals will surpass the P1.5-trillion target for 2023.
Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said investment pledges already reached P800 billion so far, and with new commitments from the recent trade missions, “it’s just a matter of time in realizing the investment target.”
“I don’t have the exact numbers, but I believe that we have already reached P800-billion investments so far,” he said.
Pascual said the trade attaches assigned in different foreign trade bureaus abroad were helping the DTI follow up investment leads and pushing for actual projects.
‘We’re working on it. There might be projects that will fall out along the way, but we’re hoping that they will all materialize,’ he said.
Pascual said 16 new projects would bring in about $1.2 billion in investments. One project is already operational, and the remaining 15 projects have qualified to be processed through the Green Lane for Strategic Projects (GLSP).
Investment leads generated in the previous trade missions reached almost P1 trillion in the first five months of 2023.
Pascual said this boosted the confidence of the agency to set the bar higher for investment target to P1.5 trillion from the initial goal of P1 trillion.
The Board of Investments (BOI), the investment agency under the DTI, secured investment pledges of P698 billion in the first half of 2023, higher by 203 percent than P230 billion it approved in the same period last year.
“The Philippines is poised to become Asia’s premier investment destination. The signs are emerging. Foreign investment pledges are at a record high,” said Pascual who also chairs the BOI.
Foreign investment approvals accounted for 60 percent of the total investments of P423 billion in the six-month period, a dramatic increase of 5,621 percent from P7.89 billion in the first half of 2022. Domestic investments went up by 23.8 percent to P275 billion from P222 billion.