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Philippines: Approved foreign investments drop 12.8% in Q1 — PSA

  • Jun 16, 2017

MANILA, Philippines –  Total foreign investments approved by the country’s seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs) fell 12.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday.

Investment pledges cleared in the first three months of the year fell to P22.9 billion from P26.2 billion in the same period last year.

These cover investment commitments approved by the Board of Investments, Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, BOI-Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.

The Netherlands was the top investing country during the quarter, committing funding of P6.2 billion — 27.2 percent of the investment pledges. Singapore and the United Kingdom (UK), meanwhile, committed P 4.3 billion and P3.6 billion in investments, respectively.

Among industries, the manufacturing sector received the bulk of commitments with investment pledges of P15 billion. Administrative and Support Service Activities received investment commitments valued at P3.5 billion while Real Estate Activities followed with P 3.4 billion.

The bulk of the foreign investments cleared — P 15.3 billion — were meant to finance projects in Region IVA — CALABARZON. Other big investment areas during the period were National Capital Region (NCR) and Central Visayas.

The combined approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals in the first quarter of 2017 grew by 21.8 percent to P 121.5 billion from P 99.7 billion registered in the first quarter of 2016.

Pledges from Filipino nationals alone stood at P 98.6 billion accounting for 81.2 percent of the total approved investments during the quarter.

These ventures are expected to generate 54,726 jobs, 7.8 percent lower compared with the projected employment in the comparative period last year. Out of the jobs to be created, 59.1 percent or 32,361 would come from projects with foreign interest.

Foreign investments approved by IPAs differ from actual investment inflows reported by the central bank.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/business/2017/06/16/1710323/approved-foreign-investments-drop-12.8-q1-psa