Total investments approved by the Board of Investments (BOI) more than doubled in the first eight months of the year pushed by telecommunication infrastructure projects registered in August.
Investments tallied to P609.04 billion at the end of August 2019, 126 percent higher than the P269.3 billion in the same period last year.
Investment approvals in August alone reached P296.2 billion, a 1,640.9 percent jump from just P17 billion in August 2018 and matches investments approved for the first seven months of 2019 , amounting to P312.8 billion.
The biggest investments approved in August are the infrastructure project of ISOC Asia Telecom Towers Inc. that would build 25,000 cellular towers totaling P141.1 billion and the three-phase project of Philippines Fiber Optic Cable Network Ltd. Inc. covering around 60,000 kilometers for an aggregate cost of P134.5 billion;
The BOI said 98 percent of the investments approved in the eight-month period are located outside Metro Manila.
Projected employment upon operations will reach 37,524 personnel, a 30.5 percent improvement from 28,743 recorded in January to August 2018.
Domestic investments hit P404.5 billion, a 61.2-percent jump from P251 billion compared to last year.
Exponential growth boosted foreign investments to a third of the total figure with total approved investments surging to P204.5 billion.
This translates to a 1,016.3 percent increase from P18.3 billion in the same period in 2018.
Singapore led all foreign sources with P170 billion; followed by the Netherlands at P9.2 billion; Thailand, P8.6 billion; Japan, P6 billion and; the United States, P2.4 billion.
Investments in information and communication technology topped all sectors to P308.8 billion, from just P340 million last year, overtaking power.
The figure was pushed by the telecom infrastructure projects in August.
Power projects remained among the biggest investments with P195.1 billion, a 50.5 percent increase from P129.6 billion in the same period last year.
BOI approvals in the manufacturing sector went up to P62.9 billion, a 189.2 percent increase from P21.7 billion a year ago.
