MANILA, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Foreign investors have pumped in 286.7 billion pesos (about 5.52 billion U.S. dollars) into the Philippines during the first four months of 2019, Philippine Trade Secretary and Board of Investments (BOI) Chairman Ramon Lopez said on Monday.
From January to April this year, Lopez said the BOI recorded cumulative approved investments of 286.7 billion pesos (about 5.52 billion U.S. dollars), a 46.5 percent increase from 195.7 billion pesos (about 3.76 billion U.S. dollars) in the same period last year.
Approved foreign investments continued its tremendous growth through the period to 66.9 billion pesos (about 1.29 billion U.S. dollars) from 2.9 billion pesos (about 55.79 million U.S. dollars) in January to April 2018, Lopez added.
Meanwhile, he said investments from domestic sources continued its upward trend with a 14 percent growth to 219.7 billion pesos (about 4.23 billion U.S. dollars) compared to 192.8 billion pesos (about 3.71 billion U.S. dollars) a year ago.
"Foreign investors remain confident in the country's business prospects as foreign capital continue to surge in the country while domestic investors remain upbeat as domestic capital continued its steady growth," Lopez said.
"Even the Asian Development Bank (ADB) now foresees that the Philippines has the second fastest-growing economy in South East Asia," he added.
He further said power projects continued their dominance through April with 185.4 billion pesos (about 3.57 billion U.S. dollars) in approvals, up 78 percent from 104.3 billion pesos (about 2 billion U.S. dollars) in the same period last year.
Manufacturing was also surging ahead with 44.6 billion pesos (about 857.6 million U.S. dollars), up 181 percent from just 15.9 billion pesos (about 305.77 million U.S. dollars) in 2018, Lopez said.
"With the government's commitment to 'clean and green' infrastructure systems, successive renewable power projects were approved by the BOI," Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Ceferino Rodolfo said in a statement.
The BOI targets to approve one trillion pesos (19.26 billion U.S. dollars) worth of investments in 2019.
Indeed, Lopez and other Philippine economic managers are bullish about the Philippine economy, saying now is the best time to invest more in the Philippines. The managers encourage businesses to be more engaged in the Philippine market not only in the infrastructure program but also in investments that would come as a result of the country's massive infrastructure development.
