DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 7 Sep) – Foreign investments approved for the first semester of 2018 reached P45.2 billion or 10 percent higher compared to P41 billion recorded in the same period a year ago, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
The country’s foreign investments doubled in the second quarter of 2018, hitting P30.9 billion from P14.2 billion in the first semester as reported by the Board of Investments, Clark Development Corporation, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.
The top prospective foreign investors for the first semester came from Indonesia with pledges worth P6.4 billion; Japan, P13 billion; United States, P4.5 billion; Malaysia, P6 billion; and Singapore, P2 billion.
According to the PSA, manufacturing would receive the largest amount of foreign investments in the second quarter of 2018 valued at P12.8 billion or 41.5 percent of the total investment commitments, construction at second with investment pledges valued at P7.1 billion, and administrative and support service activities followed at P5.4 billion.
But biggest approved foreign investments in the second quarter of 2018 were in the National Capital Region worth P12.9 billion; Calabarzon, P8 billion; Central Luzon, P4.3 billion; Central Visayas, P2 billion; and Bicol Region, P878.5 million.
In Mindanao, the report only indicated investment pledges in Davao Region (P365 million) and Caraga (P26.4 million) for the second quarter of the year.
The PSA said investment commitments of foreign and Filipino nationals reached P114.7 billion in the second quarter of 2018, lower by 50.2 percent from previous year’s P230.4 billion.
It added projects by foreign and Filipino investors in the second quarter of 2018 are expected to generate 44,526 jobs but this is 53.
2 percent lower than the projected employment of 95,131 jobs in the same quarter in 2017. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
