Philippines Board of Investments approvals surge in Jan-Feb 2021
Investment approvals at the Board of Investments (BOI) surged by 156 percent in the first two months of the year compared to the same period in 2020. This news came from Trade Secretary and BOI Chairman Ramon Lopez on Wednesday. Lopez said this online at the Manila Forum of the Association of Philippines and China Understanding.
“Investments registered in our Board of Investments showed sustained growth of 156.02 percent year-on-year in the first two months of this year. Investments reached PHP121.93 billion or USD2.5 billion for two months,” said Lopez.
From January to February 2020, BOI approved PHP47.63 billion worth of investments from 51 projects, the agency said.
The number of projects was lower by 39 percent this year. These investments came from 31 projects from January to February this year, BOI data show.
In terms of employment, the PHP121.93 billion investments will generate 10,207 jobs in the future.
Job generation for the first two months of the year is 41.59 percent. This amount is higher than the 7,209 employees in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the majority of the approved investments came from local sources.
Philippine-based companies registered PHP115.72 billion worth of projects, while investments from foreign sources amounted to PHP6.21 billion.
The Philippines generating more investments and IPOs this year
The Philippines seems to be generating plenty of interest this year.
Recently news came about that there would be seven major IPOs to be launched in the Philippines this year.
S&P Global expects the Philippine economy to do well this year.
“In terms of how our forecasts are shaping up, we are looking at 9.6 percent growth this year. I think it is evident that it’s almost a mirror image of the contraction we had last year, of just over 9.5 percent”, said Andrew Wood, Director for Sovereign ratings at S&P Global.
“We see growth remaining somewhat above potential even in 2022 and 2023, as well as the economy, catches up somewhat,” he added.
