Foreign investment pledges fell 13% in Q1

Investment pledges from foreign firms slid 12.8 percent year-on-year to P22.9 billion during the first three months of the year, also the third straight quarter that commitments declined.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported last Thursday that the foreign investments approved by seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs) dropped from P26.2 billion in the same three-month period last year.

The PSA report reflected approvals made by the following IPAs: Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Board of Investments, BOI-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. IPAs give away fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to investors.

PSA data showed that approved foreign investments fell 9.3 percent year-on-year to P125.7 billion during the fourth quarter of last year after pledges also skidded 45 percent year-on-year to P26.7 billion in the third quarter.

In contrast, approved foreign investments rose 11.5 percent to P40.4 billion during the second quarter of 2016 as well as jumped 19.2 percent to P26 billion in the first quarter.

The top three sources of foreign investment pledges from January to March were the Netherlands (P6.2 billion), Singapore (P4.3 billion) and the United Kingdom (P3.6 billion).

Almost P15 billion of the approved foreign investments during the first three months of 2017 was to be infused in the manufacturing sector.

Investment commitments for administrative and support service activities reached P3.5 billion, while those for real estate projects amounted to P3.4 billion.

The bulk of the investment pledges will be for projects in Calabarzon (P15.3 billion), followed by the National Capital Region (P2.7 billion) and Central Visayas (P2.5 billion).

Combining the foreign investments with those from Filipino investors, total pledges approved by IPAs during the first quarter increased 21.8 percent to P121.5 billion from P99.7 billion a year ago.

Filipino-led projects reached P98.6 billion or over four-fifths of all IPA-approved investments in the first three months.

The projects approved by the seven IPAs from January to March would generate 54,726 jobs, down 7.8 percent from year-ago level.

Almost three-fifths of the projected employment or 32,361 jobs were expected to be generated by foreign-led projects. —BEN O. DE VERA