BOI confident of hitting P1.5-T investment target PBBM forms inter-agency body to address inflation

President Ferdinand R. Mar- cos Jr. has ordered the creation of the Inter-Agency Committee on Inflation and Market Outlook (IAC-IMO) in an effort to ramp up the government’s efforts to ease inflation and improve the Philippine economy.

Under Executive Order (EO) 28, which was signed by Marcos on Friday, the IAC-IMO will be cochaired by the secretaries of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Finance (DOF).

The Budget secretary will be the vice chairperson of the IACIMO, while the secretaries of Agriculture, Trade, Energy, Science and Technology, and Interior and Local Government departments will serve as members.

According to EO 28, the IACIMO will act as an advisory body to the Economic Development Cluster (EDC), which will now be known as Economic Development Group (EDG).

The IAC-IMO is tasked to monitor the main drivers of rising prices of basic goods, particularly of food and energy, and their proximate sources and causes.

The EO also directs the inter-agency body to assess the supply-demand situation for essential food commodities during the cropping period to allow periodic updating as new information becomes available.

The IAC-IMO is also directed to assess the possible impact of natural and man-made shocks on the supply of key food commodities, as well as to monitor the data necessary to assess food prices and the supply and demand situation.

EO 28 also mandates the IAC-IMO to facilitate regular and efficient data sharing among concerned agencies to ensure timely supply and demand situation analysis; monitor global, regional, and domestic developments and issues that may affect prices.

The IAC-IMO is also instructed to provide timely recommendations to the EDG and relevant agencies on measures to curb price spikes and promote food security based on ex-ante supply and demand analysis.

The IAC-IMO shall submit a report to the EDG of the country’s food and energy supply and demand situation and outlook every quarter, or as the circumstances may require.

The Board of Investments (BOI) is confident that its PHP1.5 trillion investment pledges target will be achieved this year.

In an interview over the weekend here, Trade Undersecretary and BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said several big renewable energy (RE) projects are expected to be approved within the year.

“These renewable energy projects are really big, that’s why we are confident that we will hit the PHP1.5 trillion [target],” he said.

“At least five RE projects are [expected to be approved]. At the very least, the average is around

$2 billion per project. These are offshore wind and floating solar.”

Rodolfo said most of the expected investments will be from foreign companies that have local partners.

For the first quarter of the year, BOI’s investment approvals already amounted to PHP463.3 billion.

Majority of these were invested in RE, manufacturing, administrative services, transportation and storage and agriculture.

The BOI originally set the investments target this year to PHP1 trillion but due to the better-than-expected turnout in the first quarter, Rodolfo said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. mandated the agency to raise the target to PHP1.5 trillion.

Rodolfo said the move to fully open the country’s renewable energy sector to foreign ownership helped attract more foreign investments.

Last year, the Department of Justice said natural resources, such as solar, wind, hydro, and ocean or tidal energies, are not covered by constitutional limitations on foreign ownership.