BOI sees low 15% growth in foreign investments

The global economic slowdown is expected to lead to a mere 15-percent growth in foreign investments to P50 billion this year from P43.6 billion in 2000, Board of Investments managing head Vincent Perez said yesterday.

"The P50-billion investment target this year is moderate," Perez said, adding that setting a lower target is necessary because aside from the global economic downturn, this period is also a "transition year" for us.

The five sectors that the BOI wants to actively promote to investors this year, Perez said, are agri-business, logistics, information technology, tourism, and education and training.

Promoting the agri-business sector would attain government’s three other goals of providing rural-based activities, increasing employment since agri-business endeavors are usually labor-intensive and alleviating poverty, especially in the countryside.

"In the area of IT, that sector is where the country has a competitive advantage while the tourism sector is rural-based and generates foreign exchange revenues," Perez said.

Promoting education and training would have benefits for the country in terms of positive technology transfer.

According to Perez, the BOI would assess the investment picture again later in the year and set the targets for 2002 and 2003.

Investments approved by the BOI amounting to P43.6 billion last year had actually dropped dramatically from the P116.476 billion approved in 1999.

For the first quarter of the year, total approved investments by the BOI amounted to P26.6 billion.