The Philippine Economic Zone Authority said Monday investment approvals surged 258 percent in the first half to P80.58 billion from P22.48 billion a year ago.
PEZA said it approved 102 investment projects in the six-month period.
“We remain optimistic that we will sustain our positive growth trajectory for the second half of the year, given the notable increase in our KPIs on investments, jobs and exports from a more aggressive whole-of-government approach in investment promotion,” said PEZA director-general Tereso Panga.
PEZA said that in the first year of the Marcos administration covering July 2022 to June 2023, it generated P198.79 billion worth of investments from 206 projects, up 232.81 percent from P59.73 billion a year earlier.
These investments were expected to yield direct jobs of 1,805,770 and direct exports amounting to $58.49 billion.
PEZA said it registered 11 big-ticket projects with minimum P1 billion in capitalization from the roster of approved projects in the first year in office of President Marcos.
Big-ticket projects involving economic zone development, export manufacturing and economic zone facilities amounted to P154.966 billion.
PEZA said it is ramping up its investment promotion and facilitation initiatives to bring in much-needed foreign direct investments to the country. This is ahead of the anticipated influx of investors to the country as PEZA conducts follow-through on the outbound missions initiated by the President.
“This June, PEZA welcomed several French, Czech and Dongguan delegations to the Philippines and facilitated the learning visit and study tour of the Ugandan and Papua New Guinean delegation. PEZA likewise received delegations from China, Taiwan, and Japan in the first semester of the year,” Panga said.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, however, showed that actual net inflows of foreign direct investments declined by 14.1 percent in April to $876 million from $1 billion a year ago, pulled down by elevated inflation and sluggish global growth.
“The decline in FDI may be attributed to concerns over slowing economic growth and relatively high inflation levels globally,” the BSP said in a statement.
Net investments in debt instruments fell 7.7 percent to $663 million. but comprised most of the country’s FDI for the period. Meanwhile, net equity investments other than reinvestment of earnings registered the highest decline of 33.8 percent to $136 million.
Bulk of the equity capital placements in April came from Japan, the United States, and Singapore. The said investments were channeled mostly to manufacturing, real estate and financial and insurance industries.
Net inflows of FDIs in the first four months also declined 18 percent to $2.9 billion from $3.6 billion a year earlier.