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Foreign investments approved in the first quarter dropped 63.6% to P148.43 billion from P408.22 billion year-on-year
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Singapore accounted for the biggest investment commitment totaling P70.06 billion followed by the Netherlands at P38.89 billion
Foreign investments approved in the first quarter of this year dropped 63.6% to P148.43 billion from the P408.22 billion year-on-year, based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The investments came from such investment promotion agencies as the Board of Investments, Clark Development Corp., the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
Singapore accounted for the biggest investment commitment of P70.06 billion, or 47.2% of the total. Next was the Netherlands at P38.89 billion, or 26.2%. In third place was South Korea at P20.23 billion, or 13.6%.
The largest amount of approved investments were for the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply industries at P109.19 billion, or 73.6%. Accommodation and food services came in with P20.09 billion (13.5%) followed by manufacturing at P12.62 billion (8.5%).
CALABARZON received the biggest share of pledged investments at P117.39 billion, or 79.1% of the total. Central Luzon came next with P23.83 billion, or 16.1%, then the Bicol Region with P2.86 billion, or 1.9%.
Investments from foreign and Filipino nationals reached P309.45 billion, down 35.6% from the P480.48 billion recorded for the first quarter of last year. Filipino nationals’ investments for the period were pegged at P161.03 billion, or 52%.
The first-quarter investments were expected to generate employment for 27,711, an 8.8% increase from the 25,470 jobs created for the same period last year. The bulk of the new jobs would be from foreign investment projects, at 23,378.
On the other hand, no foreign investments were approved for the period from the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Bases Conversion and Development Authority, BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Clark International Airport Corp., John Hay Management Corp., Poro Point Management Corp., Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, and Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority.
