BARMM generates P3.3-B investments in Q4 of 2023

By John Felix M. Unson, Correspondent

COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro region generated P3.3 billion worth of investments in the last three months or fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023, generating employment for 1,927 workers.

Records obtained by BusinessWorld on Tuesday from the Bangsamoro Board of Investments (BBOI) and the Ministry of Trade, Investments and Tourism (MTIT) indicated that besides the capital inputs by investors from within and outside the region, entrepreneurs and merchants earned P16.9 million from last year’s 30-day Ramadhan Trade Fair at the capitol of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in this city.

Mohammad O. Pasigan, chairman of the BBOI, said there were a number of unfavorable incidents in the BARMM last year that hit the news, but did not dampen the positive investment climate in the region.

Of the P3.3-billion investments BARMM had in the past three months, P3.1 billion was poured in by investors through the efforts of the BBOI.

Up to P3.4 million more worth of investments were generated via the programs of the MTIT, according to the Bangsamoro Information Office.

The Bangsamoro region generated P7.6 billion worth of investments from January to September 2023, according to documents from the BBOI, the Bangsamoro Business Council (BBC), the MTIT and the regional government’s agriculture and labor ministries.

“Businesses in BARMM are improving. Our focus now is to convince investors to put up viable agricultural projects in the region’s six provinces,” the lawyer-entrepreneur Ronald Hallid D. Torres, chairman of the BBC, said.