Investment pledges up 20% in first half – BOI

More investment pledges were approved by the Board of Investment (BOI) in the first six months of 2011. Investment pledges, mostly from local investors, rose by 20.32 percent to P204 billion compared to P170 billion in January to June last year, according to a BOI on Thursday. Local investments remained at a record P193 billion compared to P11 billion by foreign investors, said the BOI. The Investments are expected to create 32,090 additional jobs in the country. The manufacturing sector had the highest amount of committed investments at P95 billion, up 8,286 percent increase from P1 billion. Coming in second was the electricity and gas sector with P57 billion from P150 million. The real estate sector generated P41 billion in investments, up 297 percent from the P10.4 billion. The Netherlands topped the list of country investors with P4.5 billion, followed by Japan (P1.2 billion) and the United States (P734 million). — BC/VS, GMA News