Total foreign investments (FIs) approved in the fourth quarter of 2019 posted a double-digit hike, with bulk of the amount accounted for by Chinese investments, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) yesterday showed.
This sent full year 2019 total approved FIs to P390.11 billion, 112.8 percent higher from the year ago level of P183.35 billion.
FIs approved in the last quarter of the previous year reached P112.1 billion, or 17.3 percent higher compared to the P95.6 billion recorded in the same period in 2018.
The FIs for the fourth quarter were mainly driven by investments from China which accounted for 77 percent, followed by South Korea and the United States of America.
Specifically, China committed P86.3 billion. South Korea and USA pledged P6 billion and P5.5 billion or 5.3 percent and 4.9 percent of the total approved FI, respectively.
In terms of industry, majority of FIs in the fourth quarter were for the information and communication industry with P84.24 billion or more than 75 percent share, followed by manufacturing with P13.75 billion, accounting for 12.3 percent, and administrative and support service activities with a share of 6.7 percent, or P7.5 billion.
Singapore accounted for nearly half of the amount with P176.36 billion or a share of 45.2 percent, followed by China with P88.67 billion or 22.7 percent of the total approved FI for the year.
Ranking third is South Korea with a share of 5.1 percent or P41.48 billion.
For the full year, the information and communication industry also got the largest share of the pie with P219.38 billion or more than 56 percent.
This is followed by the sectors of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply with P72.64 billion or 18.6 percent share, and manufacturing with P61.95 billion which accounts for 15.9 percent.
The investment pledges came from the seven investment promotion agencies: Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.
Meanwhile, the PSA said approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals in the fourth quarter of 2019 were expected to generate 55,946 jobs, lower by 23 percent compared with the previous year’s projected employment of 72,630.
Out of these total anticipated jobs, 78.8 percent would be absorbed by projects with foreign interest.
Projected employment from approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals were seen to be lower for the full year as well at 178,954, seven percent down from the 192,335 expected a year ago.
Of the said figure for the full year, more than 72 percent is accounted for by projects with foreign interest.
