MANILA, Philippines — Investment pledges from foreign sources approved by investment promotion agencies (IPA) went up by 27.8 percent in the second quarter from a year ago amid reforms put in place to make the country more attractive for foreign investors.
Data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) yesterday showed total foreign investments reached P59.09 billion in the second quarter this year, higher than the P46.26 billion in the same period last year.
The foreign investment pledges were approved by IPAs such as the Board of Investments, BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Clark Development Corp., Clark International Airport Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
Asked to comment on the data, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort attributed the increase in foreign investments to the further reopening of the economy toward greater normalcy.
“Reform measures to further attract more foreign investments and ease foreign ownership restrictions such as the CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) Law, Public Services Act, Foreign Investments Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, 100 percent foreign investments allowed in renewable power, among others, also supported more foreign investment inflows into the country,” he said.
He said the country’s membership into the world’s largest free trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, also partly helped increase approved foreign investments.
The PSA said Japan was the biggest source of foreign investment commitments as it accounted for P20.36 billion or 34.4 percent of the total in the second quarter.
Singapore came in next with P17.65 billion (29.9 percent), and Cayman Islands at P11.63 billion (19.7 percent).
By industry, manufacturing accounted for the biggest share in approved foreign investments at P35.07 billion or 59.3 percent of the total in the second quarter.
This was followed by information and communication with P13.92 billion or 23.6 percent share, and administrative and support service activities with P3.33 billion or 5.6 percent share.
Among the regions, SOCCSKSARGEN accounted for the largest share of foreign investment pledges amounting to P19.39 billion or 32.8 percent of the total in the second quarter.
CALABARZON placed second with P14.64 billion (24.8 percent) and the National Capital Region with P3.12 billion (5.3 percent).
Total approved investments from both foreign and Filipino firms surged 218.4 percent to P317.23 billion in the second quarter from P99.64 billion in the same quarter of last year.