Total foreign investments (FI) approved in the first half of the year more than doubled following a 60 percent surge in the second quarter, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
The total approved FI by six out of seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs), namely the Authority of the Freeport Area Bataan (AFAB), Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corporation (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) as well as Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) hit P 95.6 billion from P45.2 billion in the previous year.
PSA said FIs approved in the second quarter amounted to P49.6 billion from P30.9 billion recorded in the same period of the previous year.
But Filipino investments fell 31 percent to P57.4 billion, from P83.8 billion.
These pushed investment commitments of foreign and Filipino nationals down by 6.7 percent to P107 billion during the period from previous year’s P114.7 billion.
Filipino nationals shared 53.7 percent of the total investment pledges during the quarter
The data showed Singapore topped all investors in the second quarter with P36.2 billion or 73 percent of total followed by Japan and the Netherlands at P4 billion and P1.3 billion, or 8.2 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.
Top recipients by industry are electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply in the second quarter with P35.7 billion or 72 percent share, followed by manufacturing, P6.1 billion or 12.4 percent share and; administrative and support service activities, P3.1 billion or 6.3 percent.
The biggest approved foreign investments in the second quarter of 2019, amounting to P41.4 billion or 83.4 percent would be intended to finance projects in Region IVA – CALABARZON. The second biggest, amounting to P 4.2 billion or 8.5 percent, was pledged to National Capital Region. Region III-Central Luzon followed with P1.8 billion or 3.7 percent approved FI.
Total amount of projects by foreign and Filipino investors in the second quarter of 2019 are expected to generate 30,135 jobs.
This number of jobs is 32.3 percent lower than the projected employment of 44,526 jobs in the same quarter in 2018.
