Investment pledges in Q3 down 45%

Foreign firms’ investment pledges during the first three months of the Duterte administration dropped 45 percent year-on-year to P26.7 billion, the government reported Tuesday.

PSA data showed that the commitments made by foreign investors before seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs) from July to September dropped from P48.6 billion last year.

The PSA report reflected approvals made by the following IPAs: 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). IPAs give away fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to investors.

The year-on-year drop in the third quarter pulled down end-September foreign investment pledges to P93.3 billion, 12.4 percent lower than the P106.6 billion a year ago.

The decline in the third quarter also reversed the 14.8-percent year-on-year increase during the first half or the last six months of the Aquino administration.

During the third quarter, only the SBMA posted growth in foreign investment commitments, which jumped 34.3 percent year-on-year to P530 million.

Third-quarter approvals of Afab dropped 96.4 percent; of BOI, down 30.9 percent; CDC, down 96.5 percent; Ceza, down 75.7 percent; and Peza, down 54.1 percent.

BOI-ARMM did not receive any investment commitment during the third quarter.

From July to September, the top three sources of prospective foreign investments were South Korea (P6.5 billion worth), the United States (P4.6 billion), and Singapore (P4.1 billion).

During the first nine months, the top three prospective investing countries were Singapore (P16.7 billion), the Netherlands (P14.6 billion) and Japan (P13.9 billion).

In terms of sectors, poised to receive the biggest amount of foreign investment was electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply, with P13.2 billion, followed by manufacturing (P5.1 billion) and transportation and storage (P3.5 billion). As of end-September, the three sectors that attracted the largest amount of commitments were manufacturing (P29.1 billion); electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply (P23.7 billion); and administrative and support service activities (P13.9 billion).