Foreign investment pledges rise 11.5% in Q2

MANILA, Philippines - Total foreign investments approved by the country’s seven investment promotion agencies grew 11.5 percent in the second quarter of 2016, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday.

Investment pledges during the period reached P40.4 billion, up from P36.2 billion in the same period last year. In the first six months of the year, approved foreign investments reached P66.6 billion, up 14.8 percent from the previous year’s record.

These include investment commitments cleared 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.

By country of origin, the top three prospective investors in the second quarter of 2016 were Singapore, Japan and South Korea. Pledges from Singapore amounted to P10.2 billion. Japan and Korea committed investments worth P7.1 billion and P5.1 billion, respectively.

Manufacturing is still the largest recipient of foreign investment commitments, with pledges valued at P14.2 billion in the second quarter of the year or comprising 35 percent of total.

Construction also received a sizeable amount of pledges at P8.2 billion representing 20.4 percent of total; while administrative and support service activities received commitments of P6.2 billion, making up a 15.4-percent share.

In terms of location, the bulk of foreign investments are intended to finance projects in Region IVA-CALABARZON.

Other prominent investment destinations are Region VII-Central Visayas and National Capital Region.

Projects approved by the investment promotion bodies are expected to create 53, 998 jobs, higher by 49.2 percent compared to the same period the previous year. Out of the total, 74.2 percent would be created by projects with foreign interest.

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