Saturday, January 17, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
THE Board of Investments (BOI) projects flat growth for investment pledges this year.
“For 2009, the BOI expects to post the same [investments] figure as 2008,” Trade Secretary Peter Favila, who chairs the incentives-giving agency, said in a presentation to a Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry meeting.
Favila said the agency’s investment approvals last year reached P288.35 billion, an increase of about 34 percent compared with the previous year’s P215.35 billion.
He said a total of P443.23-billion worth of investments were approved by the country’s two top investment-promotion agencies, BOI and Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), in 2008. This represents a 27-percent increase from commitments registered in 2007.
He said projects the two agencies approved last year would generate 176,000 jobs.
Lilia de Lima, PEZA director-general earlier said the agency posted 15-percent year-on-year growth in registrations in 2008, and targets a growth of 10 percent for this year.
Trade department data also showed that committed investments by local businessmen outnumbered those by foreign investors in terms of value, as P279.33-billion worth of investments, or 63 percent of the total, were pledged by Filipinos.
Favila said investments in most of the country’s major industrial sectors, such as electricity, gas and water supply, real estate, renting and business activities, and manufacturing, posted growth last year.
In his presentation, Favila also reported that total merchandise exports grew by 6 percent last year, mainly due to growth in shipments of motor vehicles and parts, marine products and processed food, minerals and services. He said the department targets a 3-percent export growth this year, which would be because of the projected increase in shipments of home furnishings, marine products and processed food and the bullish services sector, including the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, game product development and tourism.
For this year, Favila said the department would focus on maximizing the country’s benefits from trade agreements, such as the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA); intensify trade with nondollar and non traditional export markets, such as the so-called CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) and other Asian countries; elevate the Philippines’ competitiveness and continuously combat “red tape;” ensure prudent use of the department’s funds by rationalizing expenditures on trade missions abroad; and generate livelihood opportunities and jobs for Filipino workers who could be displaced due to the global financial crisis.--Ben Arnold de Vera
