Approved Foreign Investments Reach PhP 148.43 Billion in the First Quarter of 2024
Total foreign investments (FI) approved in the fourth quarter of 2013 by seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs), namely Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corporation (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) as well as Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), BOI-Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BOI-ARMM), and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), amounted to 132.0 billion, 42.7 percent lower than PhP 230.2 billion investment commitments in the fourth quarter of 2012. Meanwhile, total approved FI for the year 2013 reached PhP 274.0 billion, down by 5.4 percent from PhP 289.5 billion pledges recorded in the previous year.
British Virgin Islands was the top source of approved FI in Q4 2013 as it contributed 35.0 percent or PhP 46.1 billion of the total FI commitments. Japan and the Netherlands occupied the second and third places, pledging PhP 29.4 billion or 22.3 percent and PhP 14.4 billion or 10.9 percent, respectively, of the total approved FI during the quarter.
Projects in the transportation and storage sector garnered the largest amount of FI pledges for Q4 2013 as it stood to receive PhP 53.1 billion or 40.2 percent of the total FI. Manufacturing came in second with investment pledges valued at PhP 51.7 billion, accounting for 39.2 percent, followed by administrative and support service activities at PhP 14.5 billion or 11.0 percent share.
Approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals in the fourth quarter of 2013 totaled PhP 235.7 billion, 28.6 percent lower than PhP 330.1 billion posted in the same period of the previous year. Pledges from Filipino nationals stood at PhP 103.7 billion which accounted for 44.0 percent of the total approved investments during the quarter.
Foreign and Filipino ventures approved by the seven IPAs during the fourth quarter of 2013 are expected to create 46,997 jobs, inching up by 4.0 percent from previous year’s projected employment of 45,198 jobs. Out of these anticipated jobs, 82.1 percent or 38,567 jobs would come from projects with foreign interest.
LINA V. CASTRO
Interim Deputy National Statistician
Censuses and Technical Coordination Office
