THE Board of Investments (BOI) said it approved P607.22 billion of investments—bulk of which is in renewable energy—from January to April 2024, up 15 percent from the investment approvals recorded in the same period last year.
BOI Director Sandy Recolizado told reporters at a briefing on Friday that investment approvals in the four-month period came from 117 projects, mostly from domestic investors.
“Majority of the projects that we have approved came from Renewable Energy [RE] projects,” Recolizado said.
The BOI official noted that the biggest project that the investment promotion agency has approved is the RE project of Ahunan Power, Inc. which has a project cost of P296.98 billion.
The Ahunan power project is a 1,400-megawatt (MW) pumped storage hydroelectric power project located in Pakil, Laguna. Recolizado said this project is 100-percent Filipino-owned.
Recolizado said the second largest project the BOI approved is also a renewable energy project, the Ivisan Windkraft Corporation’s 450 MW Frontera Bay wind power project, with a P83.70-billion project cost and will be located offshore of Cavite.
The Ivisan wind power project is 25-percent Filipino-owned, 75- percent Singaporean-owned.
Of the P607.22-billion investments approved in the January-April 2024 period, Recolizado said P494.37 billion, or 81.42 percent, came from domestic investors.
She also noted that the BOI investment approvals in the four-month period are 15 percent up from the P527.24 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.
For his part, Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual, who cochairs the BOI, underscored the importance of drawing investments from domestic investors.
“Let’s not underestimate the domestic investments because that’s what we want to encourage in the Philippines…that our domestic investors commit their capital to projects in the Philippines rather than bringing out the money, their capital outside the Philippines,” Pascual said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The country’s trade chief emphasized that foreign investors are also looking to see if the country also generates investments from its own local investors, as these investors know the “innards” of the Philippines better than the foreign ones.
“Well, if the local investors are not investing here in the Philippines, and they know the innards of this country, then why should these foreigners invest?” Pascual asked aloud.
Early this year, the investment promotion agency announced that it is eyeing around P1.3 trillion to P1.5 trillion worth of investment approvals for 2024, with RE, RE equipment manufacturing, and mineral processing investments seen occupying a larger chunk of the investment approvals pie.
In 2023, BOI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo said the BOI approved P1.26 trillion worth of investment projects. This is 73 percent higher than the investment approvals recorded in the same period in 2022.
According to the BOI, the P1.26-trillion investment approvals is equivalent to 311 projects, up 28 percent from the projects approved in 2022.
These projects centered on renewable energy, telco infrastructure and the export of copper,gold, and other metals. (See: //businessmirror.minminchicago.com/2024/01/08/boi-eyes-%E2%82%B11-3t-1-5t-investment-approvals-in-2024/)