Presidential visits the past year have generated 126 project leads with $41 billion in investments but only six with a combined cost of $84 million materialized as of June.
Secretary Alfredo Pascual of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in a press briefing in Malacanang yesterday shared the agency’s monitoring of the leads in various stages of development.
Pascual said the six projects have registered there in various investment promotions agencies (IPAs) and are now operational.
For the year, these projects will generate 4,200 employment, Pascual said.
Seven other projects worth $4.2 billion have registered with IPAs ; four valued at $876.73 million are in the process of registration; two projects costing $3 billion are covered by signed agreements with clear financial value of the projects and; 48 are covered by memorandum of agreement or letter of intent with estimated investment of $30 billion.
The most number of pipeline investments are in the planning stage. These are 59 projects with a combined cost of $32.8 billion.
Pascual said collectively, these are expected to generate approximately17,800 direct employment.
He said the DTI has mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the progress of investment leads from previous foreign trips.
“We ensure transparency and accountability although we cannot always disclose the names of specific companies that we deal with due to confidentiality demanded by private companies,” he said.
Pascual added some leads may take longer to materialize while committing that DTI will address any attendant obstacles to these projects with the creation of a one-stop action center for prospective investors that are bringing in strategic investments.
“Investment leads are typically long-term commitments. These are not invest(ments) in shares listed in the stock exchange or hot investments that go in and out quickly. Significant investments take time to implement and their benefit to the country is also long term,” he said.
Pascual said the six companies that are now operating will contribute to manufacturing, renewable energy and the information technology-business process management industries.
