The Board of Investments (BOI) said Thursday night investment approvals jumped 86.7 percent in the first 10 months of 2023 to P1.07 trillion from P576.21 billion in the same period in 2022.
BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo expressed optimism the remaining projects in the pipeline would fill the gap to achieve the 2023 investment target of P1.5 trillion.
“I think we still have renewable energy projects that should come, adding to the initial year-to-date tally,” Rodolfo, who also serves as the Department of Trade and Industry undersecretary, said in an online briefing.
He said majority of the approved investments are RE projects, including the offshore wind power projects of Copenhagen Infrastructure New Markets Fund (CI NMF) Corp. worth P329.74 billion.
The BOI is still assessing more RE investments that include several solar power projects. Others are local public-private partnership (LGU-PPP) projects such as the mart city project in Cavite and a mining project.
DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the BOI approvals proved that the Philippines is in the right direction to become Asia’s premier investment destination of choice.
“Foreign investment pledges are at a record high. But the job is not done. Together with our other investment promotion agencies (IPAs), we will continue to work to generate more investments into the country to provide more jobs for our countrymen,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority said a five-day trade mission to Taipei yielded potential investments of P20.65 billion from several Taiwan-based companies.
PEZA director-general Theo Panga said among the projects discussed during the forum is a proposed compostable packaging manufacturing from a consortium of Japanese and Taiwanese companies with an estimated project cost of P11.36 billion.
Led by a leading brand of compostable products and resins with offices in Asia, Europe and North America, the consortium is interested in the manufacturing of innovative finished products for applications like compostable packaging and compostable food service applications in the Philippines.
PEZA also noted another potential investment of P7.95 billion from a manufacturing and renewable energy company using recycled wastepaper as raw material for the vertical integration of low-carbon paper making and eco-packaging. The same company also signified interest to invest in a waste-to-energy plant.