INVESTMENT pledges in Mindanao in the first half of this year dropped 63 percent to P6.87 billion from P18.42 billion in the same period last year, data from the Board of Investments (BoI) showed on Wednesday. Last week, Trade Undersecretary and BoI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said that investment approvals from January to mid-July this year rose 30 percent to P273 billion compared with P210 billion in the same period in 2016. The BoI expects investment pledges to reach P290 billion by end-July with more projects in the approval pipeline, and to hit P500 billion for the full year. “We still have more projects in the pipeline worth around P18 billion and these are expected to be approved before July ends. We are looking at around P290 billion by the end of the month, so that’s a 35-percent [growth],” Rodolfo said.

Source: Manila Times July 20, 2017 16:52 UTC