The Board of Investments (BOI) recorded another record amount pledges in 2019 to P1.14 trillion, prompting the agency to push for a 10 percent growth this year.
Ramon Lopez, trade secretary and BOI board chairman, said last year’s investment registrations represented a 25-percent increase over the P915 billion recorded in 2018 and exceeded by P140 billion the P1-trillion target for the year.
Lopez said the BOI is being conservative in its target for 2020 because of the huge base that the agency has already recorded.
Data from the BOI showed local investments in 2019 stood at P805 billion, down 0.74 percent from P810 billion in 2018 and accounted for 70 percent of total pledges.
Foreign investments rose 223 percent to P335.74 billion from P103 billion in 2018.
The BOI tallied 376 projects, which would generate 61,622 jobs once operational. That is 10 percent lower than the 68,891 jobs generated by projects registered in 2018.
Among the biggest projects are the P210-billion telecom project of Dito Telecommunication Corp.; the P141-billion common power infrastructure project of ISOC Asia Telecom Towers Inc.; the P130-billion coal-fired power plant in Quezon of Orion Pacific Prime Energy Inc. and; the P96-billion coal-fired power plant in Batangas of St. Raphael Power Generation Corp.
