THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) still expects more jobs to be created from investment pledges made by both Filipinos and foreign investors at the height of the Covid-induced lockdowns in the first and second quarter of the year.
Based on the approved foreign and Filipino investments through Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs), investments of foreign and Filipino nationals that cleared the hurdle amounted to P691.2 billion in the first semester, higher by 81.3 percent than the P381.2 billion committed in the same period last year.
These approved investments in the first semester of 2020 are expected to create 72,702 jobs, a 0.4-percent increase in 72,380 jobs last year. The most number of jobs will be created in manufacturing.
“Manufacturing would absorb the most number of jobs for the period, with 26,667 or 36.7 percent of the projected total for the semester,” PSA said.
This will be followed by Transportation and Storage where a total of 20,776 jobs will be created or 28.6 percent of the total jobs created from investment pledges.
Another area that will create jobs out of these investments is Administrative and Support Service Activities with 17,766, or a share of 24.4 percent of total jobs.
For investments approved in the second quarter, PSA said around 36,572 jobs will be created. This is 21.4 percent higher than the 30,135 jobs expected from the investments approved in the same period in 2019.
PSA said of these anticipated jobs, around 21,840 or 59.7 percent would be generated by projects with foreign interest.
Meanwhile, of the total approved investments for the first semester, data showed 93.5 percent were provided by Filipino investors with investments valued at P646.6 billion.
PSA said the industry with the largest amount of investments was Transportation and Storage, which stands to receive P617.8 billion or 89.4 percent of the total approved investments for the semester.
By region
In terms of region, PSA said investment pledges for the January- to-June period this year reached P554.5 billion or 80.2 percent of the total pledges.
“The bulk of the total approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals in the first semester of 2020 were intended to finance projects in Region 3,” PSA said.
Investment approvals for Metro Manila will receive the second-largest amount at 13.9 percent of the total; and Calabarzon, the third largest investments share or 2.4 percent of the total.
Meager foreign share
Meanwhile, foreign investments accounted for only 6.5 percent of the total investments approved in the first six months of 2020.
PSA data showed total approved foreign investments in the first six months of 2020 only reached P44.6 billion.
This represented a decline of 53.3 percent from the P95.6 billion recorded in the same period of 2019.
PSA said total foreign investments approved in the second quarter of 2020 amounted to P15.5 billion, 68.8 percent lower than the P49.6 billion in the same period in 2019.
The data was based on investment approvals from six IPAs: the Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corp. (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (Afab), and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza).
PSA said no foreign investments were recorded for BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-BARMM) for the reference quarters.