The Philippines has secured nearly half of its full-year investment target after President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s "aggressive but strategic" promotion initiatives abroad. Citing a report from the Department of Trade and Industry-Bureau of Investments (DTI-BOI), Malacañang bared that the total investment projects approved by the lead investment promotion agency reached P414.3 billion as of Feb. 9. This is higher by 142.9 percent compared to the P170.5-billion investment projects recorded in the same period last year. Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the agency still has potential investment leads of around P344 billion that will still be processed. "And more likely,  than ever, we may have 80 to 90 percent of the target even before the middle of the year," Pascual said. The increase in investments, the DTI chief noted, proves that the President's promotional visits abroad are working as a growing number of investors from Southeast Asia, the United States, Belgium, China and Japan, have shown strong interest in putting in more investments into the country. Pascual also noted that BOI's foreign investment approvals performed even better, accelerating to P163 billion in the same period, a 65,436 percent growth from the P249 million in the same timeline in 2022. It accounted for nearly 40 percent of the aggregate total, with domestic investment nods taking up the rest with P251.3 billion, a 47.6 percent rise from P170.3 billion last year, the DTI official added. Based on latest BOI figures, the bulk of foreign capital is from Germany with P157 billion, followed by the Netherlands with P2.7 billion, Japan with P524 million, US with P509 million, and the United Kingdom with P194 million. The renewable energy/power sector remains dominant, with P398.7 billion in approvals to date, up by 138 percent from the same period last year. Pascual said the aggressive investment promotion efforts led by Marcos are complemented by the country's strong economic performance with a 7.6 percent GDP growth.