New Investment up 96% at P370 B - 2

The data also showed that all sectors, except the ICT sector, were up. Leading the sectors was electricity, gas and water supply which generated P127.5 billion in investments and almost tripling the P45.83 billion investments inflow the sector in the January-September period last year.
Investments in the manufacturing sector also substantially improved to P104.37 billion from P77.65 billion followed by real estate, renting and business activities with P73.09 billion from P40.69 billion last year.

Transport, storage and communication generated P15.38 billion in investments from P6.23 billion last year. The infrastructure and industrial services sector generated P12.95 billion from zero investments in the January-September period last year.

The data also showed a good mix of equity investments where Filipino firms contributed P227.08 billion or 61 percent of the total investments figure while foreign investments represent P142.79 billion or 39 percent of the total.

In terms of nationality, the Dutch emerged as the biggest investors in the first nine months of this year with P36.9 billion followed by Great Britain P24.88 billion and South Korea P22.03 billion.

The U.S. and Japan, which used to be the country’s first two biggest investors ranked fourth and fifth. American investments totaled P16.38 billion and the Japanese P14.72 billion. Notably, the big-ticket projects that came in the January-September period this year were mostly in the power generation sector.

The single biggest investment was that of Emerald Energy Corp. for its P36.82 billion power
generation project in Batangas. The company is 99.99 percent Dutch-owned.

Other big-ticket items include the two power projects of British-Filipino Global Business Power Corp. with P22.14 billion and another P17.79 billion project, Kepco SPC Power Corp. of South Korea with P19.95 billion, and the Filipino-owned JG Summit Olefins Corp. P34.38 billion.
The only sore site in the January-September investments picture is the ICT sector, which posted a 28 percent decline in investments to P8.37 billion only from P11.61 billion in the same period last year. But despite the decreased investments, the sector has the biggest jobs contribution of 37,764 or 21 percent of the total employment 147,705 jobs that would be generated by the approved projects.(BCM)

Government Develops Technology to Fight Pollution

The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) has developed a technology which can address air pollution problems from gold and silver refining plants.DoST Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) Environment Division chief Dr. Christopher Silverio said they have developed the Wet and Dry Scrubbers for Gold and Silver Refining Plants. Scrubber systems are a diverse group of air pollution devices that could be used to remove some particulates and/or gases from individual exhaust streams.

A wet scrubber is used to clean air and other gases of various pollutants and dust particles while dry scrubbers are used to remove acid gases like sulfur dioxide primarily from combustion sources. The technology enables refining plants to control emissions, which is detriment to human health.

Prior to the local development of the said technology, residents near gold and silver refining plants, particularly in Bulacan, complains of pungent smell coming from refining plants, particularly from burning gold or silver. With the wet and dry scrubbers, refining plants may now have cleaner emissions art the scrubbers take off lead, nitric acid, copper and other impurities from producing gold and silver.