Approved foreign investment pledges rise to P390B in 2019
Credit to Author: Mayvelin U. Caraballo, TMT| Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2020 17:20:01 +0000
FOREIGN investment approvals surged by more than a hundred percent in 2019, with three investment promotion agencies (IPAs) posting growth during the year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Data from the statistics agency showed that seven monitored IPAs approved P390.11 billion in foreign pledges from January to December, up 112.77 percent from P183.34 billion in 2018.
IPAs that posted year-on-year growth in approvals were the Board of Investments (BoI), the BoI-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
In contrast, approved investment pledges by the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Clark Development Corp., Cagayan Economic Zone Authority and Philippine Economic Zone Authority contracted.
The information and communications industry received the largest share of pledges with P219.37 billion). Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply got P72.63 billion and manufacturing, P61.95 billion.
Singapore was the top prospective investing country last year with P176.36 billion worth of commitments. China came next with P88.67 billion and South Korea, P41.47 billion.
By location, majority of the approved investments are intended to finance projects in Region 4A (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces or Calabarzon), which accounted for P108.53 billion; Region 3 (Central Luzon), P28.75 billion; and the National Capital Region, P23.83 billion.
“With these latest numbers, the Philippines remains a viable choice for foreign investors seeking new markets and investment opportunities,” Union Bank of the Philippines chief economist Ruben Carlo Asuncion said in a comment.
The Philippines “remains an attractive investment proposition” despite uncertainties caused by the US-China trade war, the threat of a global economic slowdown, and the delayed approval of the 2019 national budget, he added.
While considering the latest investment pledges approval as a good sign, Asuncion said “there is much more that needs to be done in terms of ease of doing business, fiscal reforms, and other pertinent reforms to get a bigger share of the FDI (foreign direct investment) pie in the region.”
In the fourth quarter alone, foreign investment pledges reached P112.1 billion, up 17.3 percent from P95.6 billion in the same period in 2018.