Despite security issues, ARMM registers P3.2-B investments in 2017

COTABATO CITY -- The Regional Board of Investments of the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao (RBOI-ARMM) approved P3.2 billion worth of investments in 2017, or
53 percent higher as compared to last year’s P2.11 billion.

The
region’s top investor in 2017 is TierOne Communications International, Inc.
(Tier1), which invested on a telecommunications project worth PhP3 billion. It
will provide cellular services, broadband connectivity, wireless internet, and
public WiFi.

Tier1
targeted Marawi City as their first roll out or pilot area but then the Marawi
Siege happened. Nevertheless, Tier1 continued with the registration of their
project hoping to serve other areas in ARMM including the ARMM government
compound in Cotabato City as their new pilot area. Tier1 committed to put up
their service facilities in Marawi City at the appropriate time in step with
the government’s plan for the reconstruction of the ruined city.

The
company also holds the record for the second biggest investment project in the
history of ARMM next to Al Sahar Agri-Ventures, which invested P3.7 billion
in banana plantations in Maguindanao in 2015. Such telecoms project will create
lot of potential jobs in the downstream telecoms industry since Business
Process Outsourcing or BPO remains as the country’s best job generator in
2017.

The
next top ARMM investor in 2017 is the Bangsamoro Terminal Services, Inc.
investing on a P129 million port related services project in Polloc Port,
Parang, Maguindanao, providing efficient logistics support to the thriving
businesses in Cotabato City and nearby municipalities in Maguindanao.

Other
notable ARMM investments in 2017 are the water treatment plant and bulk water
supply project (P40 million) of Mactan Rock TGV Builders Corporation in
Maguindanao general cargo vessel with a capacity of 494 metric tons (MT)
providing shipping services to traders in Tawi-Tawi (P33.5 million) of J.
Sayang Shipping Lines, Inc. and aquamarine cold storage and fish processing
facility (P32 million) of Abing Seafood Cold Storage, also in
Tawi-Tawi.

A
total of 1,877 jobs are expected to be created from the projects registered in
2017.

In 2018, we expect to have good investment results if the Marawi
rehabilitation and reconstruction will push through starting next year because
we hope to register the firms who will participate in the reconstruction. Such
projects will amount to billions of pesos and will certainly lift the
investment profile of the ARMM, Lawyer Ishak Mastura, RBOI-ARMM chair and managing board head, said on the region's investment prospects in 2018.

Agriculture-based projects are still the most in demand among
investors in the region based on the investment proposals we received for 2018.
We also foresee projects related to infrastructures, energy, as well as,
banking and finance linked to rebuilding war-ravaged Marawi City, he added.

He
also explained that in 2017, the ARMM Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) for
2017-2019 was approved by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. We included in the
IPP a full list of relevant priority projects that we believe can drive
socio-economic growth considering that most of the areas in the ARMM are less
developed. This will encourage investors to put their financial capital in the
region due to the incentives they will enjoy once their companies become
operational, Mastura said.

Likewise in 2017, the
RBOI together with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and
Hineleban Foundation started the implementation of the Brokering
Business Investments in the Bangsamoro to achieve Inclusive Development and
Growth (BRIDGe ) Program in the ARMM funded by the Australian government
(Australian Aid)- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The program
highlights the development of the Business Sustainability Framework in the
Bangsamoro (BSFB), a document that outlines recommendations to potential
investors on how to initiate new business in the region.

ARMM
Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman said that his administration will continue to
advocate and promote investments in 2018 despite issues on peace and security by
providing an environment that is conducive for business.

Still, we believe
that investors’ soaring trust and confidence to invest is the reason why the
ARMM has continuously increased in investments resulting to billions of
projects since year 2013, Hataman said.