SUBIC BAY FREEPORT -- Subic Bay Freeport remain bullish despite the economic slowdown as a new study show that this Freeport topped and posted the only increase among the investment promotion agencies (IPAs) in the country.

According to Nomura Research Institute (NRI), Subic Freeport was the only IPA that increased its foreign direct investment, posting a 13.6 increase in committed investments based on year-on-year figures for the first quarter of 2009.

View photos of anti-Charter change rally from around the country
For minute updates follow Sun.Star on Twitter

NRI noted that the Board of Investments (BOI) recorded a 57 percent decrease to P4.3 billion; the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), a 50.8 percent decrease to P13.6 billion; and the Clark Development Corporation (CDC), a 72.5 percent decrease in commitment basis.

The figures on FDI commitments in the Philippines formed part of a study by the NRI for the proposed development of the Philippine Investments Promotion Plan (PIPP) which was presented to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).

The same study pointed to the negative impact on FDI generation in other Asian countries. These included Thailand, which posted a 26 percent decrease in capital commitments; Vietnam, a 67 percent decrease in capital realization; India, a 28 percent decrease in FDI realization; and even China, which suffered a 21 percent decrease in FDI realization.

Compared with its Southeast Asian neighbors, however, the Philippines “has attracted far less FDI than the peer Asean countries,” the NRI study found out.

Earlier, SBMA reported that the Subic Bay Freeport has “achieved an excellent level of economic resiliency” after recording a 13.6 percent growth in investments in the first quarter of 2009 despite the global economic crisis.

SBMA administrator Armand Arreza said the agency signed up a total of 30 new projects worth P1.5 billion for the first quarter this year bringing to 966 the total number of registered investors here. The new projects, meanwhile, are expected to generate some 580 new jobs.

Subic’s investment generation this year was recently boosted further by new investment pledges by South Korean shipbuilder Hanjin, which bared new capital infusions worth $86 million.

Hanjin officials said the new investments would be for the production of ship components at the Subic facility and would be committed in two parts: $29 million starting September this year, and $57 million next year and onwards.

Arreza said that among the industries that kept the local economy afloat was tourism, which has become a major economic driver for Subic Bay, and which has also created various downstream businesses that benefited communities in the Subic Bay area.