Preliminary estimates of investment figures approved by the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) in the first four months of 2017 reached PHp154 billion. DTI Secretary and BOI Chair Ramon M. Lopez said the figure is tracking an increase of over 30% compared to last year over the same period, which registered Php 117.2 billion.

Projects registered with the agency during the period grew to 194, or an increase of 92 percent from the 101 projects registered in the same frame in 2016. These projects are expected to generate 46,018 new jobs once operational—an increase of 181 percent over the 16,366 employment generated in the first four months of last year.

Agriculture-related projects will create some 6,907 jobs while investment projects in real estate will create around 33,458 in new jobs, a 203 percent increase in jobs generated from the projects registered in the sector from January to April 2017. Job generation from manufacturing-related projects also increased by 79 percent, from 1,697 from January to April 2016 to 3,038 in new jobs for the same period this year.

The increase in value of investments was attributed mainly to the approval of housing and construction projects with a combined investment amount of PhP113.5Billion, followed by the energy and power sector with PhP20.8 Billion, manufacturing with PhP15.4 billion and transportation and storage projects with PhP2.2 Billion.

BOI Managing Head and DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said the BOI is forecasting a robust first full-year local and foreign investment inflow with growth forecast of 13.7 percent to P500 billion from P441 billion achieved in 2016.

He said that the agency is eyeing one of its highest investment registration level to mark its 50th Founding Year, hence “P500 billion for BOI@50”.

With the early approval of the 2017 Investments Priorities Plan (IPP) which was designed to spread the benefits of the country’s fast economic growth to the countryside with emphasis on a broader segment of the manufacturing sector, innovation-driven, and job-generating businesses, Undersecretary Rodolfo said the BOI sees a robust growth of manufacturing investment projects this year.

The manufacturing sector generated a total of PhP49 billion investments in 2016 or 11 percent of total investments last year. In the first four months of 2017, the sector recorded a 158 percent growth with investment projects amounting to PhP15.425 Billion from only PhP5.96 Billion recorded in the same period last year. Investments in the sector is expected to generate at least 3,038 in new jobs once these business projects are operational.

Investments approved in April 2017 alone totaled Php86 billion, up 55.45 from April last year. Number of projects approved in April 2017 reached 72, up from 28 in the same month last year or a 157 percent increase. Employment generation figures reached 9,903 compared to 3,525 in April 2016.