SOUTH KOREAN businesses have renewed their interest in the Philippines, especially in the energy sector, according to the Board of Investments (BoI).

In a statement released by the department of trade and industry’s investments promotion arm, the BoI said it met with Korean power companies to give assurances on previous concerns of South Korean businesses that caused them to pull out of the country, like high utility costs.

Director for International Investments Promotion Service Angelica M. Cayas told BusinessWorld on Friday that she had a briefing last Nov. 7 with a Korean delegation, which included the Korean Standards Association, on the current state of the energy sector in the Philippines, policies and development trends.

“They came here just as a side-trip. They attended a conference together with the Korean Standards Association — around 107 Korean [delegates] but 13 are from the energy sectors. [T]hey decided to explore the opportunities in investing in the energy sector here,” she added.

There were 10 energy companies that attended the meeting, which included the Department of Energy’s (DoE) presentation of the government’s policies and plans for the energy sector, aside from BoI’s briefing on incentives — which may include a number of tax exemptions — given as part of the Investment Priorities Plan.

“There’s a specific law for renewable energy so that’s for the DoE’s project, but we’re the ones administering the incentives for renewable energy, and there’s really a lot of incentives to encourage the investors to come here,” Ms. Cayas said.

Ms. Cayas added that they had welcomed the interest, as energy remains to be one of the top investment priorities seen by DTI due to the country’s thin power reserves.

“[Energy is] one of the binding constraints of the investments here in the Philippines. If you noticed, the BoI has been listing energy in our investments priorities plan for a long time even during the power crisis [in the early 1990s],” she added.

“We really have to address the power supply here because our reserves are really thin so we have to attract more investments to the power sector to ensure that we have enough supplies.”

On Friday, the BoI also granted tax incentives to nine projects of five local renewable energy firms. — A.G.A. Mogato

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