The Board of Investments (BOI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) were able to generate combined investment pledges of P718.13 billion last year, with majority of projects approved under the incentives regime of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives (CREATE) Law.
**media**
Data showed that of the total amount, the BOI contributed the bulk with P468 billion since the effectivity of the CREATE Act in April 2021. In 2020, the BOI approved a total of P1.02 trillion in investment pledges.
The Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB), which reviews huge projects for incentive purposes, adopted the 2020 BOI Investment Priorities Plan as the interim Strategic Investment Priority Plan, the list of economic activities eligible for the package of tax and fiscal incentives under CREATE.
These projects are expected to generate 77,520 jobs.
Since the enactment of CREATE, the FIRB has already approved P110.466 billion in committed investments.
In terms of foreign direct investments (FDI), the BOI reported a total of $7.3 billion FDIs in the first three quarters of 2021. This is 43.8 percent higher versus the same period in 2020.
The first three quarter FDI level also put the Philippines the fourth highest in ASEAN for the last five years.
The data, however, is expected to further improved because the PEZA report is only up to November last year.