Total foreign investments (FI) approved in the third quarter of 2019 jumped by more than four-fold versus the same period a year ago, driven by investments in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
In a statement yesterday, the PSA said approved FIs in the previous quarter amounted to P182.4 billion, significantly higher than the P42.6 billion in the third quarter of 2018.
“The growth in investment pledges were mainly driven by investments in the ICT industry, which grew to P134.6 billion in the third quarter,” the PSA said.
It also reported that the top three prospective investing countries for the third quarter of 2019 are Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
Singapore committed P135 billion or 74 percent share of the total investments during the quarter.
South Korea and Japan pledged P34.3 billion and P3.9 billion, or 18.8 percent and 2.1 percent of the total approved FI, respectively.
The FIs in the third quarter were approved by the seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs): Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, BOI-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.
The PSA said investments of foreign and Filipino investors approved by the seven IPAs for the third quarter are expected to generate 50,575 jobs.
Out of these anticipated jobs, 54.3 percent would come from projects with foreign interest, it said.
