The Board of Investments has highlighted investment opportunities in Davao after the region suffered a deep economic setback during the pandemic.
BOI Executive Director Bobby Fondevilla highlighted at the Davao Investment Conference in “Davao Region: Strong Today, Stronger Tomorrow,” investment opportunities particularly in real estate, tourism, manufacturing, and agribusiness with its enablers such as ICT, academe & infrastructure that are available in the region. BOI is the investment promotion and generation agency under the Department of Trade and Industry.
Fondevilla also presented the top 10 priority sectors in Davao City namely: Agri-business; Tourism and Recreational Facilities; Light Manufacturing and Assembly; Real Estate/Property Development; Health and Wellness, Educational and Sports Facilities; Environment Protection or Green Projects; Information and Communications Technology; Generation of New Sources of Energy; Transportation and Infrastructure; and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Projects.
Investments in the Davao region are also entitled to Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act.
Fondevilla noted that investments in the Davao region received P8.26 billion worth of investments in 2019, but the amount was halved to P4.96 billion in 2020.
For 2019, the largest amount of investments in the region came from real estate activities with P3.19 billion followed by Electricity, Gas, Steam, and Air Conditioning Supply with P2.19 billion. At the third spot was manufacturing with P2.02 billion.
Other approved investments in the region were from the waste Management and remediation activities (P586.5 million); transportation and storage (P201.6 million); agriculture, forestry, and fishing (P57.3 million); and water supply, sewerage, administrative and support service activities (P13.8 million).
In 2020, real estate remained the top driver with P2.17 billion worth of investments followed by accommodation and food service activities with P1.8 billion. At the third spot was agriculture, forestry, and fishing with P636.6 million. Other sources of investments include human health and social work activities (P139.87 million) and administrative and support service activities (P15 million).
Some of these notable projects approved under the BOI’s Investments Priorities Plan (IPP) in Davao in 2020 were the 8990 Housing Development Corporation, a developer of an economic and low-cost housing project in Davao City, with P2.17 billion amount of investments; CHMI Hotels & Residences, Inc., a new operator of tourist accommodation facility in Davao City with P1.8 billion; and Universal Power Solutions, Inc., a new operator of Battery Energy Storage Solutions (BESS) in Malita, Davao Occidental with P1.1 billion.
Projects that fell under the billion-peso mark were Millenium Specialty Coco Products, Inc, a new export producer of coconut products in Panabo City (P994 million); Anflo Banana Corporation, a new export producer of fresh cavendish banana in Davao Oriental (P616 million); and Tagum Water Company, Inc., a new operator of Bulk Water Supply in Tagum City (P586 million).