Foreign investment pledges rise 6.5% to P45.9 billion in Q3

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign investment pledges approved by the country’s investment promotion agencies rose 6.5 percent in the third quarter, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday.

Commitments approved in the third quarter went up to P45.9 billion from P43 billion in the same period last year.

These cover investment pledges cleared by the Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corp. (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), BOI-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-ARMM), and Cagayan Economic zone Authority (CEZA).

In the first nine months of the year, foreign investment pledges rose 8.2 percent to P91 billion from P84.1 billion in the same period last year.

The bulk of foreign investments during the third quarter came from British Virgin Islands, Malaysia and the US.

During the reference period, firms from British Virgin Islands committed P15.5 billion (33.8 percent of total), while those from Malaysia and US pledged P10.7 billion and P4.5 billion, representing 23.3 percent and 9.8 percent of total, respectively.

By economic sector, electricity, gas, steam and airconditioning supply received the largest committed amount of approved foreign investments during the quarter at P16.1 billion (35 percent share).

Real estate activities cornered the second largest share at P11.8 billion (25.6 percent share), followed by manufacturing at P7.6 billion (16.6 percent share).

By location, the majority of the approved foreign investment pledges would be used to finance projects in Northern Mindanao (P15.5 billion).

Central Luzon Region (Region III) accounted for the second highest amount at P13.5 billion, representing 29.5 percent of total, followed by the National Capital Region at 8.3 billion or 18.2 percent of total pledges.

The combined investment pledges of foreign and Filipino firms reached P259.7 billion in the third quarter, a decline of 5.3 percent compared with P274.4 billion the previous year. Filipino firms shared P 213.9 billion worth of pledges or 82.3 percent of total.