Investment approvals hit P64 billion in first quarter

MANILA, Philippines - Investment approvals for the first three months of this year soared by 256 percent to P63.95 billion, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reported over the weekend.

Combined investment approvals recorded by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and the Board of Investments (BOI) hit P63.95 billion for the first three months of 2010 from only P17.97 billion in the same period last year.

Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Lillia B. De Lima said the agency approved P28.85 billion worth of investments from January to March this year compared to the P13.67 billion a year ago. De Lima said this represents a 111-percent jump in investment commitments.

Likewise, the Board of Investments (BOI) recorded a 717 percent increase in first quarter investment commitments to P35.1 billion from only P4.3 billion last year.  

The top performing sectors for the period were manufacturing; real estate, renting and business activities; electricity, gas and water supply; transport, storage and communications as these sectors yielded positive growth rates.

Investor confidence remained high with foreign investment inflows continuing to reflect positive outlook on the economy. Japan and theNetherlands continued to be the country’s top trading partners as investors from these countries contributed the most investments in the first quarter of 2010.

The biggest PEZA investostor was Japanese firm Nidec which infused P1.320 billion for a manufacturing plant in Laguna while the BOI bagged Charoen Pokphand Foods or CP Foods, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thailand’s largest agri-business group, the Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Co. Ltd. (CPF) which invested P2.36 billion for an aqua feed mill plant in Capas, Tarlac.

CP Foods also decided to put up a P1.042-billion hog production facility in nearby Concepcion, Tarlac.

The project will entail the construction of a great grand parent stocks (GGPs) farm, a grand parent stocks (GP) farm and a farm for breeder finishing hogs. The feed requirements of the three farms will be culled by the company through feed mill tolling agreements with a chosen feed mill adjacent to the farm sites.

A steady supply of hogs will ensure stable prices for the public as consumer confidence continues its upswing recovery. In addition, this project will benefit local suppliers of feeds as the company will buy feeds from adjacent sites.

Its breeder hogs will have a capacity of up to 25,000 head for sows and 500 heads for boars which could produce slaughter hogs of over 1,100 MT of GP fatteners and roughly 2,500 MT of Parent Stock (PS) fatteners. The breeder hogs will be sold on a per head basis regardless of weight while the slaughter of hogs will be sold live to viajeros with prices based on weight.The investment will employ 80 personnel as commercial operation is scheduled to start on January 2011.