More Japanese firms check PH prospects

More big-ticket Japanese investors are looking at the Philippines as a viable investment and expansion site in the next three years, a recent Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) survey showed.

The “JBIC Fiscal Year 2013 Survey: Outlook for Japanese Foreign Direct Investment” released in November last year showed that the Philippines ranked 11th in the list of “promising countries/regions for business development over the medium term,” or four spots up from 15th place in the 2012 poll.

Out of the 488 Japanese firms surveyed last year, 39 or 8 percent said they see the Philippines as a promising investment destination over the medium term.

In 2012, only 4.1 percent or 21 of the 514 companies polled were optimistic about the Philippines’ medium-term prospects.

Fifteen of the firms that deem the Philippines as a viable investment site in the next three years have business plans to set up shop in the country, but over half of the respondents that found the country promising have no firm plans yet to invest here, the survey showed.

The same survey showed that 50.6 percent of existing Japanese-led businesses in the Philippines would likely strengthen or expand their operations in the country over the medium term.

Asean as a whole figured well in the 2013 JBIC survey, as nine of its 10 member-countries figured into the top 20, with Indonesia ranking No. 1, dislodging China, which dropped to fourth place.

In the top 10 were third-ranked Thailand, Vietnam (5th), and Myanmar (8th). A notch below the Philippines was Malaysia in 12th place, Singapore ranked 16th, Cambodia was 17th, while Laos rounded up the top 20.

“Among countries/regions ranked lower than 10th, the Philippines rose from 15th to 11th place as the nation continued to record strong economic growth,” the lender noted in its publication, JBIC Today, published last April.

In a research note on the 2013 JBIC survey for Tokyo, Japan-based Institute for International Studies and Training (IIST), NLI Research Institute cited that “Asean is becoming an increasingly important investment destination for Japanese companies.”

In the case of the Philippines, the country “is also again being viewed as a promising investment destination in recent years because of the strong merit presented by its large English-speaking population, making it an important base for the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry (accounting, finance and other administration, as well as animation production, software development and call center services, etc.),” Hiraga said.

JBIC’s survey was conducted from July to September last year, the 25th in an annual poll that started in 1989.