BoI notes drop in investments as of Q1

BOI Cebu OIC Ellorence Cruz speaks before stakeholders at the BOI roadshow in Cebu in December 2016. (CDN FILE PHOTO)

The value of projects registered with the Board of Investments (BoI) reached P720.58 million in the first quarter of 2017, down from P7.65 billion during the same period in 2016.

Ellorence Cruz, BoI Cebu extension office OIC chief, said this was not necessarily negative since the kind of projects registered to the agency as well as their correponding costs cannot be predicted.

In the first quarter of 2016, a P6.6 billion wind power project by Amihan Energy Corporation in Balamban, midwest Cebu was registered with the BoI, making it one of the highest-costing activities logged during that year.

For January to March this year, the BoI logged five projects, including two mass housing projects and three energy projects.

The mass housing projects include Malibu by Aldea Premier of 77 Living Spaces, Inc. And Villa Melissa of Kenrich Development Corporation while those for energy are solar power projects by Solar Pacfic Citysun Corporation.

All five projects are expected to generate 234 jobs, still lower than the 498 generated by six projects in the first quarter of 2016.

Cruz said they are striving to encourage companies, especially those that have high impact on employment such as manufacturing, to register for BoI incentives.

The BOI, an attached office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), is the government’s main investment arm that registers projects qualified for fiscal and non-fiscal incentives such as, but not limited to, tax holidays, duty-free importation of capital equipment, and employment of foreign nationals.