The country’s rosy economic environment failed to lure more foreign investments in the third-quarter, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
The PSA reported Tuesday, Nov. 15, that the total approved foreign investments in July to September 2022 went down by 22 percent to P13.5 billion from P16.82 billion in the same period last year.
The decline was registered after five investment promotion agencies (IPAs) of the government reported zero approval during the quarter.
These IPAs were Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Board of Investments (BOI)-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Poro Point Management Corp., and Tourism Infrastructure Economic Zone Authority.
The P13.5 billion worth of foreign investment approvals were only from four IPAs, namely BOI, Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, PSA said.
“The FI commitments for the third quarter of 2022 were mainly driven by investments from Japan, which accounted for 34.5 percent of the total approved FI, followed by South Korea (15.5 percent) and Singapore (12.6 percent),” PSA said.
Japan committed P4.5 billion while South Korea and Singapore pledged P2.02 billion and P1.64 billion, respectively.
In the third-quarter, manufacturing bested all other industries in terms of foreign investments with P7.2 billion worth of pledges, equivalent to 55.2 percent of total.
Administrative and support service activities came in second with investment commitments valued at P3.38 billion or 25.9 percent share, followed by real estate activities with P1.35 billion or 10.3 percent contribution.
The biggest chunk of the approved foreign investment in the third quarter was intended to finance projects in CALABARZON amounting to P6.60 billion, followed by Central Luzon with P3.02 billion (23.1 percent) and National Capital Region with P2.24 billion (17.1 percent).
Approved investment of foreign and Filipino nationals reached P159.18 billion in the third quarter, an increase of 58.4 percent compared with P100.48 billion a year earlier.
Filipino nationals contributed P146.13 billion or 91.8 percent investments. Total approved projects were projected to generate 28,139 employment.
Out of the total anticipated employment for the period, approved projects with foreign interest were projected to generate 17,994 employment based on the reports of IPAs.
Earlier, the PSA reported that the country’s economy accelerated by 7.6 percent in the third-quarter, up from 7.5 percent in the second-quarter and 7.0 percent in the same period last year.