MANILA -- The Board of Investments (BOI) achieved a milestone last year after registering at least PhP1.16 trillion in investments before Christmas, the highest in the agency’s 56 year history, a trade official said on Thursday.

The PhP1.16 trillion investment record is higher than the BOI’s previous highest record of PhP1.14 trillion achieved in 2019, Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo pointed out during an interview with ANC.

Those investments were the result of the foreign trips of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and all other promotional efforts by investment promotion agencies, which would be funneled into actual registrations and then into projects, he said.

“When I say actual registration this is not ‘yung laway lang. This is actually, they have registration with the SEC because they have to comply with the minimum documentary requirements, minimum process requirements with the government for them to be able to register. So they already incorporated here, they have set up some office here,” Rodolfo said.

“So for that, the BOI in our 56 year history, we were able to register at least P1.16 trillion before Christmas. that’s the highest in the 56 year history of the Board of Investments. Previous to that the highest was PhP1.14 trillion in 2019,” he said.

Rodolfo said the Philippines used to lag behind Thailand and Malaysia in terms of investments, but the current figures show, particularly in the first three quarters of the year, the Philippines did better than its two Southeast Asian neighbors.

The major factors for such success include the administration’s aggressive promotional efforts overseas, as well as the policy reforms initiated by the Marcos government, which were laid out to investors, he said.

“The aggressive promotional efforts, coming out, very important because you have a new administration, very important for us to get out there and lay out to investors what the priorities of the administration [are],” Rodolfo explained.

“And then also, of course, very important it’s not just you are going out for a presidential visit for our mission, you have to bring with you the policy changes that you are bringing to the investors.”

The trade official cited the change in the renewable energy policies that the President instituted in November 2022, in addition to the Executive Order on Green Lane, among other reforms. (PND)