Approved foreign investment commitments in PH up 30% in Q4 2022

Foreign investment pledges approved in the fourth quarter of 2022 rose by 30.1 percent to P173.61 billion from P133.47 billion in the same period in 2021, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Combined with registered commitments from Filipino nationals valued at P304.55 billion, total investment approvals in the fourth quarter hit P478.16 billion, up 17 percent from P408.54 billion a year ago.

The foreign investment pledges were registered by six Philippine investment promotion agencies (IPAs): The Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), Board of Investments (BOI), BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-BARMM), Clark Development Corp (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

No foreign investment approvals were reported from Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza), Poro Point Management Corp (PPMC), and Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) for the period.

The bulk of the fourth quarter foreign investment commitments came from Singapore (64.2 percent), followed by Japan (21.5 percent) and United Kingdom (5.9 percent). Singapore committed P111.47 billion, while Japan and United Kingdom pledged P37.41billion and P10.22 billion, respectively.

The information and communication sector bested other industries as it stands to receive P114.29 billion or 65.8 percent of the total foreign investment pledges. Real estate activities came in second with investment commitments of P35.57 billion or a 20.5-percent share, followed by manufacturing with P19.30 billion or about 11 percent.

Of the approved foreign investments, P101.36 billion or 58.4 percent will finance projects classified as “nationwide” or situated in various regions of the country. This was followed by Ilocos Region with P 32.66 billion (18.8 percent), Calabarzon with P 30.71 billion (17.7 percent), and Central Luzon with P5.70 billion (3.3 percent).

The combined foreign and Filipino investment commitments in the fourth quarter were projected to create 37,766 jobs. Of these, 23,364 jobs are expected to be created by projects with foreign interest.