Philippines: FDI seen to reach record $11 B

• May 26, 2017

MANILA, Philippines –  The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)  expects foreign direct investments (FDI) to surge this year, eclipsing a record high forecast set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). 

“We are foreseeing that for this year we can even hit between $10 billion to $11 billion, thanks also to the very strong interest of Chinese companies in the Philippines and the new foreign policy of the government—a foreign policy of being closer to our neighbors here in this region,” Trade Undersecretary and Board of Investments (BOI) managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said.

The DTI forecast represents growth of up to 39 percent from the 2016 FDI level of $7.9 billion. It also exceeds the BSP’s revised target for the year pegged at $8 billion.

The country’s net FDI last year zoomed 40 percent to a new record level, surpassing the full-year target of $6.7 billion from $5.64 billion in 2015. This prompted the BSP to hike its previous forecast of $7 billion for 2017.

Rodolfo said one of the major drivers of the country’s sustained economic growth in the past years has been the robust FDI it has been getting.

“One of the most important assets of the Philippines is our population. The median age of Filipinos is about 23.1 years old. Also critical is our population is highly educated, English speaking, and we offer a whole range of skill set all the way from humanities to business administration to finance to technical engineering. All of the skill set that you need when you invest in a particular country, you will find it here in the Philippines,” Rodolfo said.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez earlier told The STAR he sees the country on a stronger position as one of the most preferred FDI destinations in the region in the next few years on the back of the government’s  huge and relevant infrastructure spending and trade and investment reforms.

The target, he said, is for the country to rank among the top five in the region in the next three to five years after lagging in the past.

This forecast was supported by foreign businessmen, who said reforms being undertaken by the Duterte administration, which, among others, include higher infrastructure spending, easing of economic restrictions in the Constitution and tax reforms, bode well for enticing more FDI to the Philippines.

The BOI, for its part, is targeting to grow its investment approvals to its highest level in nearly two decades, with a full year growth forecast of at least 13 percent as it looks to breach the P500-billion mark.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/business/2017/05/26/1703514/fdi-seen-reach-record-11-b