TOTAL foreign investments (FI) approved in the third quarter of 2021 reached P16.82 billion, lower by 45.8 percent compared with P31.03 billion in the same quarter of 2020, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021.
These investment pledges were from four investment promotion agencies (IPAs), namely Board of Investments, Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
The foreign investment commitments for the third quarter of 2021 were mainly driven by investments from Japan, which accounted for 66.4 percent of the total approved foreign investments, followed by the Netherlands (9.2 percent) and British Virgin Islands (4.2 percent).
Japan committed P11.16 billion, while the Netherlands and British Virgin Islands pledged P1.56 billion and P698.32 million, respectively.
The manufacturing industry bested all other industries as it stands to receive P11.01 billion or 65.5 percent of the total foreign investment pledges. Real estate activities came in second with investment commitments valued at P2.7 billion followed by administrative and support service activities with P2.38 billion.
Majority of the approved foreign investments during the third quarter of 2021 amounting to P8.45 billion (50.2 percent) were intended to finance projects in Calabarzon. This was followed by the Ilocos Region with P3.40 billion (20.2 percent) and Central Luzon with P2.12 billion (12.6 percent).
In the third quarter of 2021, approved projects with foreign interest were projected to generate 10,268 jobs based on reports of the IPA.