The Board of Investments (BOI) has approved around 261 projects worth PHP816.81 billion in the first 11 months of 2025, and trade officials are still assessing 10 more big-ticket items worth more than PHP1 trillion.
The BOI-approved projects as of end-November this year are lower than the year-ago’s PHP1.58 trillion, but Trade and Industry Secretary (DTI) and BOI chair Cristina Roque expressed optimism for stronger results going forward.
“The PHP816.81 billion in approved investments to date sends a clear signal to local and foreign investors: the Philippines is an ideal, competitive, and future-ready business destination,” she said in a press release Monday.
These investments mostly came from Singapore, Thailand and the U.S., and are intended for projects mainly in the Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (Calabarzon), National Capital Region and Bicol Region.
These are expected to generate 32,864 direct jobs, DTI data show.
The DTI said the big-ticket items being assessed include three hydroelectric projects with a combined 2.4 gigawatt (GW) capacity; four Off-Shore Wind projects with 3.7GW combined capacity; two air transport service projects; and one transport infrastructure project.
Meanwhile, projects certified under the green lane initiative, or those with approvals that were fast-tracked for being strategic investments, numbered around 78, worth PHP1.92 trillion, as of the end of November this year.
Bulk of the projects, worth PHP1.42 trillion, are into renewable energy (RE), followed by public-private partnership (PPP) on infrastructure and water, digital infrastructure, manufacturing, food security and pharmaceuticals.
“As we are a prudent administrator of incentives, we carefully evaluate these projects according to the requirements of the Strategic Investment Priorities Plan and its Guidelines. While we are working double-time, we are unsure if all of these can be approved for registration this year. But what this signifies is the pipeline of strategic investments remains to be strong,” Roque said. (PNA)