Board of Investments Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo has conceded that approved investment commitments in 2020 would fall short of its goal for another P1 trillion mark for the – year.
In a briefing with the BOI press, Rodolfo said that as of their latest Board meeting they are still at P950 billion level. There are other projects worth P68 billion though could be approved on December 28, the BOI’s last Board meeting for 2020, that would bring year-end total to P970 billion or P30 billion off target.
Rodolfo also said that P68 billion for approval projects still need endorsement from other government agencies.
Rodolfo said the big-ticket projects include infrastructure projects, such as toll roads, telco towers and third party independent towers, transportation and airplanes that are still due for delivery in 2022 and 2023, and manufacturing (chemicals).
Earlier, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez expressed confidence that BOI, of which he is the chairman, will sustain the P1 trillion mark this year despite the pandemic. This year should have been the second highest mark in the agency’s history.
Nonetheless, Lopez expects that BOI would be able to go back on track with the P1-trillion mark next year saying the government’s premier investment generating and promotion agency is still seeing significant inflows.
Lopez also reiterated that there are 90 notable investment leads with high probability of completion, valued at $24.1B, generating 134,855 jobs. There are also 73 target investment leads that DTI will invite directly, coming from the US, Malaysia, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Europe.
Earlier, Lopez said the government was pursuing a total of 159 investment leads to choose the Philippines as complementary host country for their manufacturing operations.
According to Lopez, the 24 existing business leads are relocating from China and have been pursued by BOI even before the COVID-19 pandemic. These are mostly Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Koreans and Americans. But Taiwan, Japan and Korea are the first three countries being targeted by the BOI for manufacturing operations.
On top of that, the BOI is targeting 135 Chinese and non-Chinese firms. These include 16 Wuhan-based companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Wuhan is the epicenter of the disease that spread out to the world.
The Wuhan-based firms are engaged in the manufacture of electric equipment and appliances, metal products, auto/auto parts, and machinery and equipment manufacturers.
The BOI has also identified 64 China-based companies affected by the US-China trade war that are candidates for relocation to other sites. These firms are engaged in the production of medical devices, optical lenses, appliances, bicycles and furniture.
Another 53 companies of which 35 are based in China are also being pursued by the government’s premier investment promotion agency. These firms are manufacturing COVID-19 related products such as medical supplies, and products and electronic components for medical applications.
The BOI has position the Philippines as a complementary host country to target companies in the manufacturing industry. The agency has also supported companies to accelerate the conversion of these leads.