Presidential trips yield $19 billion investments – DTI

MANILA, Philippines — A total of $19 billion worth of investments pledged during the foreign trips of President Marcos have already been actualized or have commenced implementation as of June this year, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual reported that the actualized investments cover 65 projects, higher than the 46 projects reported as of December 2023.

“There are $19-billion (in investments) already cleared and registered (with investment promotion agencies). These investments are under categories four, five and six,” he said in a press briefing yesterday.

Pascual said 12 projects worth $328 million were already in the Stage 6 category of investments, which means they have registered with the IPAs and are operating.

Foreign investments that were categorized in Stage 5 of investment stood at $1.6 billion. A total of 21 projects have already registered with the IPAs and operations will begin soon.

Meanwhile, there are 32 projects under the Stage 4 category of investments with investments amounting to $17 billion. The registration of these investments is still in progress with the IPAs.

The $19 billion actualized investments account for 31 percent of the $61.3 billion worth of investments generated from the foreign trips of President Marcos. This covers 201 projects.

Including public private partnership (PPP) projects, DTI Undersecretary Jose Edgardo Sunico said total investments at different stages stood at $76.6 billion as of June, covering 231 projects. This is higher than the $72.2 billion as of December 2023, which covered 148 projects.

“Possible changes in project scope and foreign exchange fluctuations are also key considerations,” Sunico said.

Meanwhile, DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said the Board of Investments (BOI) is confident that it will hit its 2024 investment approvals target of P1.5 trillion.

The agency earlier said it approved P27.41 billion worth of investment pledges in May, 23 percent lower than the P35.7-billion pledges approved a year ago.

In the January to May period, approved investment pledges reached P640.22 billion. This is 14 percent higher year on year, marking the “highest five-month approval in the BOI’S 57-year history.”

Last year, the BOI approved P1.26 trillion in investments, falling short of its P1.5-trillion target.

Based on data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, foreign direct investments (FDI) inflow jumped by 23.1 percent to $686 million in March from $557 million in the same month last year.

This brought the first quarter FDI inflow to $2.97 billion, 42.1 percent higher than the $2.09 billion seen in the comparable period a year ago.