Foreign direct investments (FDI) from January to October improved 156 percent to P39.3 billion, a development attributed by the country’s trade chief to the Duterte administration’s business reforms.
In a report on Wednesday, the Board of Investments (BOI) said approved FDI after 10 months went up 156 percent to P39.3 billion, from P15 billion during the same period last year. Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said this is proof of the country’s good standing with foreign businesses, as they direct large sums of capital in spite of rising inflation and tempered gross domestic product growth.
On the other hand, investment pledges registered with the BOI from January to October accelerated 26.2 percent to P515.9 billion, from P408.8 billion. The growth is seen to boost the BOI’s chances at hitting its P680-billion target for this year.
“The latest BOI investment figure is a concrete testament to the continued confidence of the international investing community on the strong fundamentals of the Philippine economy and the policy reforms and infrastructure development under President Duterte’s administration,” said Lopez, who also sits as BOI chairman.
“Investments continue to drive growth, based on FDI and the latest BOI numbers, as investors see the political will of the current administration to institute reforms, such as the recently passed ease of doing business law, as well as other factors, such as policies leading to further liberalization of more sectors to allow greater foreign equity and reap the potential of demographic dividends, such as the growing middle class in a 106 million Philippine market size economy and the young professionals with greater purchasing power,” he added.
The country’s top sources of FDI are Indonesia at P6.4 billion, Malaysia at P2.9 billion, Japan at P2.8 billion, Australia at P1.1 billion, China at P1.1 billion and the United States at P612 million. This was followed by Italy at P485.7 billion, Singapore at P404.1 million and Switzerland at P357.7 billion.
The top 5 industries that significantly made up the BOI figures are energy; manufacturing; transportation and storage; construction and public-private partnership projects; and real estate. The manufacturing industry grew 271.32 percent to P142.86 billion, from P38.47 billion last year.
“We are pleased with the remarkable increase in manufacturing investments. With the strong domestic demand being serviced by merchandise imports, additional investments [are] needed to boost our manufacturing base that will also expand our capacity to export and address the perennial structural issue of our trade deficit for the past many decades,” Lopez stated.
Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo Jr., for his part, said he is confident that the agency will hit its P680-billion target for this year. He said investment officials are just taking it slow and steady in approving commitments, as they want to grant incentives to the right projects.
“After the record-breaking investment approval figure of P617 billion in 2017, the agency is working hard to breach its investment target of P680 billion for this year. The rest of the year should be pretty exciting,” Rodolfo said.
“There are several big-ticket projects undergoing strict evaluation process, to ensure that incentives are needed to realize their strategic impact,” he added.