The country’s approved foreign investments went down amid prolonged uncertainty due to coronavirus pandemic, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed on Thursday, June 3.

Based on the submissions from six investment promotion agencies, total commitments reached P19.55 billion in January to March this year, lower by 33 percent compared with P29.14 billion in the same period last year.

Of the total pledges to the Philippines, more than three-fourths of the foreign investments will go to southern Tagalog, cornering P7.54 billion.

Central Visayas secured the second biggest share of 14 percent, or P2.73 billion, while Metro Manila received P1.74 billion, equivalent to 8.9 percent.

During the three-month period, the bulk of approved foreign investments came from Japan with 54.8 percent (P10.72 billion) of the total approvals, followed by Cayman Islands with 5.8 percent (1.14 billion), and South Korea with three percent (P592.64 million).

The PSA data were submitted by Board of Investments, Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.

No investment approvals were reported from BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao during the quarter.

Because of the lower investments pledges, the expected jobs to be generated fell by 43 percent to 18,416 as against the projected 32,395 employments in the same quarter last year.

In 2020, foreign investors’ commitments to set up shop in the country delcined 71 percent to P112.1 billion from a record-high P390.1 billion in the previous year.

As worldwide spread of the coronavirus disease continues, the country took another hit from the health crisis as its economy is contracted anew by 4.2 percent in the first three-months of the year.

To attract investments, the Duterte administration drastically reduce the government’s corporate income tax by five percentage points from 30 percent to 25 percent beginning last year.