November 5, 2021 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Board of Investments (BOI) expects approved investments this year to fall short of the P905-billion goal due to pandemic-induced restrictions.
Trade Undersecretary and BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said in a virtual briefing yesterday that the agency is unlikely to meet the P905-billion target for approved investments this year.
“We may be off that target by at least 30 to 35 percent. We may meet P600 billion for this year,” he said.
As of end-October, investments approved by the BOI reached only P376 billion.
Rodolfo said the agency has investment leads amounting to P700 billion, but these may not be realized in the remaining months of the year.
Of the P700 billion investment leads in the pipeline, P300 billion comprised those that submitted requirements to the BOI, and the documents are currently being checked if complete.
Rodolfo said the agency may be able to approve registration of P225 billion worth of projects within the next two months.
“We’ll need until the first or second quarter of next year to realize the pipeline leads,” he said.
While the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act, which modernized incentives for investors took effect this year, he said the restrictions imposed amid the pandemic affected investments particularly in the second and third quarters.
He said firms want to come to the country when they are about to make investment commitments, but strict quarantine protocols were put in place due to the threat of the Delta variant of the virus.
“CREATE is helpful. But even if you have CREATE, you have incentives, but the global environment is struggling and you have the situation here, it will be difficult. Incentives are not enough. We really need to open up the economy and allow investors to come in,” he said.
As quarantine protocols are eased for vaccinated individuals for their due diligence studies, he is hopeful the investments performance would recover.
Last February, the BOI said it is targeting P1.25 trillion in investment approvals this year.
Total investments approved by the BOI reached P1.02 trillion last year.
