“We expect more foreign investments to come in as a result of the various presidential visits and investment promotion activities.”

Investments approved by the Board of Investments (BOI) from January to May grew 18.92 percent to P207.48 billion from only P174.472 billion in the same period last year.

For BOI officials, this indicated persistent foreign investor confidence in the country’s economic prospects as foreign direct investments (FDIs) also showed a 29 percent increase to the equivalent of P7 billion in local from only P5.38 billion in the same period last year.

Actual FDIs reported by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed a 43.5 percent increase to $2.2 billion on net basis in the first quarter of 2018, indicating “the sustained strong investor confidence in the economic strategy of the Duterte administration.”

Japan tops the list of foreign investors with P2.645 billion worth of investments, followed by Italy amounting to P485 million. China, the United States and Hong Kong completed the top five foreign investors.

Local investments showed an 18.60 percent increase within the five-month span at P200.547 billion worth of projects, higher than P169.901 billion worth of projects in the same period last year.

Power and energy products had the biggest share of local investment registrations at P106.552 billion, while transportation and storage contributed P39.817 billion.

Toyota Motors Philippines Corporation topped the list of local investors in May this year, increasing its additional investments in the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program by P2.56 billion. Fellow automotive company Mitsubishi Motor Philippine Corporation added an increase of P820 million to the program.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez saw the figures as just beginning.

“We expect more foreign investments to come in as a result of the various presidential visits and investment promotion activities conducted in the past months,” said Lopez, who also chairs the BoI.

The trade chief said the next goal of the board is “to ensure that these investment pledges and job opportunities will materialize and allow us to share the economic gains of the country, especially to those at the bottom of the pyramid.”

Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo, Managing Head of BoI, said the investments were aimed at local investors within strategic industries.

“It is in this context that we are supportive of the proposed second Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN Package 2, in order to make our incentive regime more relevant and responsive to needs of investors in priority strategic and socially-relevant industries,” Rodolfo said.