Lower project registration tally adopted by BoI

Business World

THE BOARD of Investments (BoI) has trimmed its private sector project registrations target for next year as independent power retailers that make up almost half of the 2010 figure are no longer qualified for incentives, a ranking official said late on Monday.

"Our target for 2011 is lower. It’s P240 billion," BoI managing head Cristino L. Panlilio said in a telephone interview.

This is 16% less than the estimated P285 billion worth of projects the BoI approved this year, and strays from a 15% increase for 2011 committed in the Philippine Investment Promotions Plan.

It will also be a reversal of the surge in investments -- more than double the P123.42-billion haul of 2009 -- approved by the BoI this year.

Independent power producer administrators (IPPAs) -- firm with the right to sell the contracted output of IPPs -- made up "close to half" of the 2010 BoI approvals, Mr. Panlilio said.

The state agency last September decided that IPPA incentives applications would no longer be accepted while it studied how tax perks affect the rest of the supply chain.

Mr. Panlilio said investment pledges from priority industries and infrastructure projects should narrow the gap between the 2011 and 2010 tallies.

"When you take IPPAs out, that’s a big sector. But we will try to compensate for that," he said.

"I think the business environment will be the same or even stronger next year as we see public-private partnerships [for infrastructure] start to be implemented," he added.

"If they see the transparency of the bidding procedures, we expect people to get motivated to invest more," Mr. Panlilio said, citing tourism, mining, agriculture, electronics manufacturing, information technology, energy and shipbuilding as attractive industries.

Activity in these sectors will act as "jumpstarters."

"You will see manufacturing for domestic requirements like food, housing materials and household items following," Mr. Panlilio said. -- Jessica Anne D. Hermosa