Investment approvals up 32.9% in 2017

MANILA -- The country’s seven major investment promotion agencies (IPAs) have approved a total of P911.3 billion worth of investment pledges in 2017, increasing by 32.9 percent from P685.95 billion worth of commitments in 2016, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed.

About 88 percent of the investments approved last year were from local sources amounting to P805.65 billion, while the remaining 12 percent were from foreign investors with pledges amounting to P105.64 billion.

Four out of seven IPAs posted positive growth in their investment approvals. They are the Board of Investments (BOI), with approvals increasing by 40 percent to P619.41 billion; Philippine Economic Zone Authority, up by 8.9 percent to P237.57 billion; Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, up by 343.7 percent to P41.47 billion; and BOI-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, up by 53.2 percent to P3.23 billion.

On the other hand, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan had investment approvals last year amounting to P2.06 billion, Clark Development Corp. with P7.27 billion, and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority with P277 million.

These pledges approved by the IPAs are expected to generate 217,561 jobs, an increase on job creation of 11 percent from last year’s investment approvals.

Bulk of these jobs are in the sector of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply with expected job creation of 51,929 jobs, followed by real estate activities with 47,952 jobs, and administrative and support service activities with 40,916 jobs.