[ Manila Bulletin Online ] November 17, 2008
By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT
Despite the global financial crisis, all key indicators in the investments picture by the country’s premier investment generating agencies – the Board of Investments (BoI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) – are positive with combined investments in the first nine months this year posting a robust growth of 96 percent to P369.87 billion versus P188.62 billion in the same January-September period last year.
Data obtained by reporters showed the BoI project approvals contributed P275.49 billion or 74 percent of the total investments while PEZA contributed P94.38 billion accounting for the remaining 26 percent.
The approved investments, measured in terms of project cost, represent around 95 percent of the P391 billion combined 2008 investments target of the BoI and PEZA, which is 12 percent growth from the 2007 actual investments haul.
There were also more projects that register in the first nine months than last year with 698 projects approved by both agencies compared to only 560 projects approved in the same period last year.
Once fully operational, these projects are expected to generate 147,705 job opportunities, significantly higher than the 107,851 jobs generated on approved projects in the same period last year.
The data also showed that all sectors, except the ICT sector, were up. Leading the sectors was electricity, gas and water supply which generated P127.5 billion in investments and almost tripling the P45.83 billion investments inflow the sector in the January-September period last year.
Investments in the manufacturing sector also substantially improved to P104.37 billion from P77.65 billion followed by real estate, renting and business activities with P73.09 billion from P40.69 billion last year.
Transport, storage and communication generated P15.38 billion in investments from P6.23 billion last year.
The infrastructure and industrial services sector generated P12.95 billion from zero investments in the January-September period last year.
The data also showed a good mix of equity investments where Filipino firms contributed P227.08 billion or 61 percent of the total investments figure while foreign investments represent P142.79 billion or 39 percent of the total.
In terms of nationality, the Dutch emerged as the biggest investors in the first nine months of this year with P36.9 billion followed by Great Britain P24.88 billion and South Korea P22.03 billion.
The U.S. and Japan, which used to be the country’s first two biggest investors ranked fourth and fifth. American investments totaled P16.38 billion and the Japanese P14.72 billion.
Notably, the big-ticket projects that came in the January-September period this year were mostly in the power generation sector.
The single biggest investment was that of Emerald Energy Corp. for its P36.82 billion power generation project in Batangas. The company is 99.99 percent Dutch-owned.
Other big-ticket items include the two power projects of British-Filipino Global Business Power Corp. with P22.14 billion and another P17.79 billion project, Kepco SPC Power Corp. of South Korea with P19.95 billion, and the Filipino-owned JG Summit Olefins Corp. P34.38 billion.
The only sore site in the January-September investments picture is the ICT sector, which posted a 28 percent decline in investments to P8.37 billion only from P11.61 billion in the same period last year.
But despite the decreased investments, the sector has the biggest jobs contribution of 37,764 or 21 percent of the total employment 147,705 jobs that would be generated by the approved projects.(BCM)
