Malacañang is expecting more livelihoods for Filipinos to be generated as approved foreign investments jumped in 2021 amid improving economic conditions despite the pandemic.
Cabinet secretary and acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles made the announcement on Friday, Feb. 18, after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that P133.47 billion worth of total foreign investments were approved in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone.
"This is a 265.7 percent increase over the P36.49 billion in the same quarter of 2020," Nograles said in a virtual press briefing.
"Inaasahan po natin na mahigit 34,000 na trabaho and malilikha pagkatapos maaprubahan and mga proyekto nung fourth quarter ng 2021 (We expect more than 34,000 jobs to be created after the projects are approved in the fourth quarter of 2021)," he added.
Based on the PSA report last Feb. 15, the investment commitments from Singapore accounted for the bulk of the total amounting to P80.17 billion, followed by the Netherlands with P26.9 billion, Japan with P24.47 billion, among others.
These investment pledges were from seven investment promotion agencies, namely: Board of Investments, BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Clark Development Corporation, and Philippine Economic Zone Authority.
They also include Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, and Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan.