PHL foreign investment pledges rise to record

APPROVED foreign investment pledges in the Philippines almost quadrupled last year, buoyed by economic growth that was one of the best performing in Asia last year, according to data from the local statistics agency.

Pledges hit a record P889.07 billion ($15.9 billion), about 3.7 times higher than a year earlier and the highest since 1996.

Investment pledges rose 2.3 times year on year to P394.45 billion in the three months to December, the largest in three quarters.

Germany was the top source of approved foreign investment pledges last year with P393.99 billion, 5,400 times bigger than its year-ago pledge. Investment commitments from Germany accounted for 44.3% of the total.

The Philippine Statistics Authority compiles investment pledges from the government’s seven investment promotion agencies. It is different from the actual foreign direct investments tracked by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for the balance of payments.

The Board of Investments (BoI) contributed the biggest bulk of the foreign investment pledges with P767.63 billion, or 86.3%. The Philippine Economic Zone Authority PEZA came in second with P112.13 billion, followed by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority with P7.17 billion, Clark Development Corp. with P1.55 billion, BoI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with P359 million and Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan with P74.5 million.

Meanwhile, investment pledges from Filipino nationals fell annually by 38.7% to P190.7 billion in the fourth quarter, accounting for 32.6% of the combined pledges worth P585.15 billion.