FINANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III downplayed the concerns of some quarters over the supposed drastic drop in the flow of foreign direct investments in the country, citing the recent “healthy” $2.3-billion capital infusion by two global companies in the manufacturing and energy sectors.
Dominguez said those pointing to the alleged drop in FDIs failed to present the complete picture, omitting reinvestments that should have been included in assessing FDI data.
“(These quarters have) not captured the entire data, and reinvestments by foreign companies in the Philippines have actually been quite healthy,” Dominguez said at a recent forum on the Philippine economy in Washington DC.
He cited two recent new FDIs—the $1 billion investment by Japan Tobacco International in acquiring the assets of cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corp., and the separate $1.3-billion deal between Energy Development Corp. and a consortium of foreign investors backed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets and Arran Investment Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Dominguez said investor confidence was boosted by such initiatives as the higher public spending on infrastructure and other priority programs, tax reform, and trimming of the Foreign Negative Investment List.