Foreign investment pledges fall 69% in Q2

MANILA, Philippines — The government’s lockdown measures kept foreign investors on the sidelines in the second quarter – the strictest period for the quarantine – as the country grappled with the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said based on reports from the six main investment promotion agencies, foreign investment pledges declined by 69 percent in the second quarter to P15.5 billion, from P49.6 billion approved in the same period in 2019.

These investment commitments were filed at the Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.

No foreign project was registered at the BOI office in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao during the reference quarter.

The PSA said the investment commitments were mainly driven by US projects, which accounted for 58.7 percent of the total, followed by the UK which comprised 13.2 percent, and companies from the Netherlands which had a 12 percent share to the total.

Businesses from the US committed investments totalling P9.1 billion, while those from the UK pledged P2 billion. Those from the Netherlands, meanwhile, pledged a total of P1.9 billion.

During the quarter, the approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals combined were expected to create 36,572 jobs, higher by 21.4 percent compared with the previous year’s projected employment of 30,135.

Out of these anticipated jobs, 59.7 percent will be absorbed by projects with foreign interest.