Investment promotion agencies (IPAs) under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) logged over PHP2.73 trillion worth of projects between July 2022 to May 2024.

The pledges came from 1,090 projects that registered with DTI-attached IPAs Board of Investments (BOI) and Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual recently told reporters.

Of these investment approvals, 658 projects worth PHP2.4 trillion were registered with the BOI and 432 projects worth PHP331 billion were approved by PEZA.

Pascual said the investment commitments will generate around 182,000 jobs, of which, 102,000 will come from projects registered with the BOI and 80,000 from PEZA-registered projects.

The Trade chief noted that the policy reform of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. within the first six months of his administration that allows 100-percent foreign ownership in renewable energy (RE) projects boosted the investment approvals of DTI-attached IPAs in the past two years.

In 2023 alone, BOI registered PHP986.14 billion worth of RE investments, with the biggest share coming from offshore wind projects.

In line with President Marcos’ priority of ensuring food security, BOI noted a surge in agribusiness investments at PHP29.15 billion last year, 342 percent higher than the PHP6.6 billion pledges in this sector in 2022.

Pascual said the foreign trips of the Chief Executive and the investment missions that the DTI participated in the past two years helped in promoting the Philippines as an investment destination.

He said the Cabinet secretaries who were part of these overseas missions listened to the concerns of foreign investors and addressed the barriers to make the country more investor-friendly.

“The CREATE MORE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy) is really addressing those weaknesses in the CREATE law… That’s an important policy,” the DTI chief said.

The CREATE MORE bill aims to streamline the process for tax refund and to further reduce corporate income tax to 20 percent from the current 25 percent.

“The green lane is an important reform that really attracting investors,” Pascual added.

President Marcos signed Executive Order 18 in February 2023, creating the One-Stop Action Center for Strategic Investments (OSAC-SI) at BOI that will fast-track the processing of permits and licenses of strategic investments, or those with high economic impact, in concerned national government agencies and local government units.

Pascual also reported that since the creation of the green lane in BOI, the OSAC-SI facilitated 83 strategic projects with investments amounting to PHP2.45 trillion.

“These projects span crucial sectors such as RE, digital infrastructure, food security, and manufacturing,” he added.

Pipeline of investments

As of June 2024, there are 231 investment leads in DTI, including public-private partnership projects.

The investments in the pipeline have total value of USD76.6 billion.

Pascual said that as of July 19, there are 20 projects already operating in the country amounting to USD1.26 billion.

The investments came from the foreign investors’ commitment to the Chief Executive during his presidential visits the past two years.

The latest is the PHP12.8-billion cement production facility of Japanese cement manufacturer Taiheiyo Cement Corp. in San Fernando, Cebu which was inaugurated on July 18.

“These our progress in the implementation of the investment leads from the Presidential visits. What we have developed is a pipeline of projects. These projects will be realized over time,” Pascual said. (PNA)