Foreign investment pledges up 31.2% in ’15

Investment pledges by foreign firms jumped by almost a third to P245.2 billion last year even as the total amount of projects granted tax and other perks slid by nearly a tenth, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed.

The approved foreign investments by seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs) in 2015 rose by 31.2 percent from P187 billion in 2014. IPAs give away fiscal and nonfiscal incentives to investors.

The IPAs covered by the PSA report were the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (Afab), Board of Investments (BOI), Board of Investments-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-ARMM), Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza), Clark Development Corp. (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

In terms of sectors, the top recipients of foreign investment commitments last year were manufacturing (P134.6 billion); electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (P46.5 billion), and administrative and support service activities (P22.9 billion).

However, two sectors did not receive pledges from foreign investors in 2015, namely mining and quarrying, and public administration and defense.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, approved foreign investments climbed by 45.6 percent to P138.6 billion from P95.2 billion a year ago.

During the October-to-December period, the sectors with the highest amount of commitments were manufacturing (P95.8 billion or 69.1 percent of the total); electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (P18.1 billion or 13.1 percent), and administrative and support service activities (P14.3 billion or 10.3 percent), PSA data showed.

The top prospective investing countries during the fourth quarter were Japan (P39.4 billion in pledges or 28.5 percent of the total); Netherlands (P37 billion or 26.7 percent), and United States (P16.5 billion or 11.9 percent).

However, investments pledges by foreign and Filipino-led companies combined dropped by 9.1 percent to P686.9 billion in 2015 from P755.9 billion in 2014. The bulk of IPA-approved commitments came from domestic investors.