Investment pledges from Filipino and foreign nationals declined by nearly P1 billion, or 0.1 percent, according to the latest data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Data from the PSA showed investment pledges through the country’s investment promotion agencies (IPAs) fell to P686 billion in 2016, from P686.9 billion in 2015.
Approved Filipino investments grew only 5.7 percent, while foreign investments declined by 10.7 percent in 2016.
“Out of the P686-billion investment commitments in 2016, P466.9 billion worth of pledges, or 68.1 percent, were from Filipino investors,” the PSA said.
The country’s IPAs are the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Board of Investments (BOI), BOI-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-ARMM), Clark Development Corp., Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
Investment pledges coursed through the BOI accounted for 64.4 percent of the total investments in the amount of P442 billion, while those from Peza reached P218.2 billion, or 31.8 percent of the total investments for 2016.
Meanwhile, investments approved by SBMA and CDC amounted to P9.3 billion, or 1.4 percent, and P8.1 billion, or 1.2 percent, respectively.
“The rest of the IPAs had collective pledges of P8.3 billion, or 1.2 percent of the total investments,” the PSA said.
In terms of industry, investment pledges in the electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply sector accounted for 31.5 percent of total foreign and Filipino pledges at P215.9 billion.
Local and foreign investment pledges for real-estate activities reached P143.6 billion, or 20.9 percent, while those in manufacturing amounted to 136.5 billion or 19.9 percent of the total.
“Potential investments from 2015 to 2016, increased by 4.5 percent in real-estate activities, while investments in manufacturing declined by 20.1 percent,” the PSA said.
These investments are expected to create a total of 195,971 jobs. This was 15.9 percent higher compared to 169,075 jobs in 2015.
About half, or 50.4 percent, of jobs would come from investment pledges coursed through Peza, with 98,883 expected jobs, followed by the BOI, with 67,634 jobs, or 34.5 percent.
“Other IPAs would have a combined share of 15.1 percent of the total jobs expected,” the PSA said.
The data was based on reports generated by a number of agencies that carry out functions relating to management and monitoring of and/or promotion for attracting foreign investments in the country.
The PSA said approved foreign investments are only commitments and pledges. Actual foreign direct investments are compiled by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.