MANILA: The Board of Investments (BOI) has registered PHP414 billion worth of projects from January to Feb. 9, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Saturday.
DTI Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said the investments, both from local and foreign sources, are 41 percent of the BOI’s full-year target of PHP1 trillion for 2023.
Rodolfo said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s working visits abroad, specifically in Belgium and China, in part “created a pipeline for strong interest from investors."
“Hindi ito ‘yong mga pumirma ng letters of intent para sabihin na very interested to go to the Philippines, ito na ‘yong mga nag-register sa BOI (These are not those who signed an LOI to say they are interested to go to the Philippines, these are already those who registered at BOI). For the first one month and nine days, we have already reached PHP414 billion,” he said.
“We really credit a part of that to the strong efforts of the President to promote the Philippines,” he added.
The BOI has approved PHP655.4 billion in investments in 2021 and an estimated PHP729 billion in 2022.
The BOI is currently tracking the investment pledges in Marcos’ official visit to Japan, which Rodolfo projected to reach USD10 billion or over PHP500 million.
These companies have shown strong interest in manufacturing, the official said.
“Of course hindi ito isang bagsak na magre-register lahat (Of course, this doesn't mean they would register immediately), it will really take a lot of effort for us to follow through on these investment leads that we’ve generated,” he said.
According to the DTI, at least 120 Philippine companies and 1,300 Japanese firms, composed of 3,472 businessmen, registered for the meetings held in Tokyo, where a number of LOIs on investments were signed
Source: Philippines News Agency
