PALO, Leyte – Investments in Eastern Visayas during the first quarter of this year has reached P561 million, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regional office here reported.

But investment flow early this year was lower compared to the same period last year, which was P835.4 million. DTI officials aired their observation that the decline of investment is usually during the few months before the elections in the country.

Cynthia Nierras, DTI Eastern Visayas regional director, told Leyte Samar Daily Express that despite the performance, the region has a good investment opportunity from both foreign and local businesses especially on coconut-based products.

Records show that a total of 1,801 business names were registered during the first quarter of 2007, which was lower than the 2,654 registrants during the first quarter of 2006.

The DTI regional chief is expecting more investors after the election period since some of them have been expressing their interest to put businesses in Region 8.

“There is a very good market potential especially on coconut. Small processing plants were established in different parts of the region during the early part of the year,” Nierras said.

She said that bulk of the P561 million investments came from small businesses and some of them were assisted by the national government and private funding institutions like the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ).

Aside from coconut-based industry, DTI also noted the start up of new information and communication technology (ICT) businesses at the Leyte ICT park in this town. The local government of Leyte has been preparing the park to become more attractive to interested locators.

Nierras said that they’ve seen an increase of investment in the area of food processing since the launching of the One Town, One Product program of their office. She added that they assist these new small and medium scale entrepreneurs to improve their productivity and packaging.

According to her, tourists coming to Visayas will make Region 8 as an alternative destination, as a result more tourism-related businesses will operate in Leyte and Samar. 

“That’s a positive scenario. The region will be a recipient of more investments from both local and foreign investors,” Nierras said.

The top DTI official in Eastern Visayas said that the financing forums they have conducted during the early part of the year has attracted would be entrepreneurs to put up their business in their locality.