FDI pledges up in Q1 — PSA

MANILA, Philippines — Committed foreign direct investments rose more than three-fold in the first quarter of 2019, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority on Thursday showed.

FDI pledges approved by the country’s seven key investment promotion agencies, or IPAs, amounted P46.0 billion in the first three months of the year, higher than P14.2 billion recorded in the same period in 2018.

The seven IPAs are Board of Investments, Clark Development Corporation, 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.

Committed FDIs from Netherlands hit P10.1 billion, the biggest among investing countries and accounting for 22% of the total pledges during the period.

Japan came in second, pledging P9.4 billion or 20.5%.

Thailand took the third spot with commitments valued at P8.5 billion or 18.4% of the total approved investments.

Manufacturing bested all other industries, as it stands to receive P35.0 billion or 76.1% of FDI pledges.

Foreign investment commitments are different from the actual capital inflows separately tracked by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for balance of payments purposes. 

If the FDI pledges in the first quarter materialize, the PSA said the projects are expected to generate 41,837 jobs, 24% higher than the previous year’s projected employment.

“Out of these anticipated jobs, 76.4 percent or 31,979 jobs would come from projects with foreign interest,” the PSA said. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral