Foreign investment pledges hit record P390 billion

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign investment pledges approved by the country’s main investment promotion agencies surged to an all-time high of P390.11 billion in 2019, more than double from P183 billion in 2018, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.

These investment pledges were lodged at the Board of Investments, 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.

In the fourth quarter alone, committed foreign investments rose by 17.3 percent, boosted by commitments from Chinese firms.

The PSA reported that total foreign investment pledges cleared in the last quarter last year reached P112.1 billion, up from P95.6 billion in the same quarter of 2018.

Foreign investment pledges were driven mainly by China, which accounted for 77 percent of the total, followed by South Korea and the US.

Chinese firms committed P86.3 billion in investments. Companies from South Korea and US, meanwhile, pledged P6 billion and P5.5 billion or 5.3 percent and 4.9 percent of total approved foreign commitments, respectively.

Meanwhile, 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 creation of 72,630 jobs.

Out of these total anticipated jobs, 78.8 percent would be absorbed by projects with foreign interest.