CENTRAL Visayas cornered 11 percent or P986.59 million of the total approved foreign investments in the first quarter of 2022, the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
Majority of the approved foreign investments in the first three months of the year is intended to finance projects in Calabarzon amounting to P4.87 billion or 54.2 percent of the total followed by Cagayan Valley with P1.66 billion (18.5 percent).
The PSA said the total foreign investments (FI) approved in the first quarter of 2022
declined by 54.1 percent to P8.98 billion from P19.55 billion in the same period in 2021.
These investments were pledges from six investment promotion agencies (IPAs), namely: Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Board of Investments, Clark Development Corp., Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
No investment approvals were reported from BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for first quarter of years 2021 and 2022.
The FI commitments for the first quarter of 2022 were mainly driven by investments from Japan which accounted for 39.7 percent of the total approved FI, followed by South Korea (18.5 percent) and Singapore (18.2 percent).
Japan committed P3.56 billion, while South Korea and Singapore pledged P1.66 billion and P1.63 billion, respectively.
Manufacturing stands to receive P5.15 billion or 57.4 percent of the total FI pledges.
Electricity, gas, steam, and airconditioning supply came in second with investment commitments valued at P1.66 billion or 18.5 percent share, followed by administrative and support service activities with P977.37 million or 10.9 percent of the FI contribution.
Approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals reached P190.57 billion during the quarter, an increased of 15.6 percent compared with P164.89 billion in the same period of the previous year.
Filipino nationals continued to dominate the approved investments, posting P181.59 billion worth of investment pledges or 95.3 percent share.
These approved projects were projected to generate 14,416 jobs.
Out of the total anticipated jobs for the period, approved projects with foreign interest were projected to generate 9,655 jobs based on the reports of IPAs.