Foreign investment pledges surged 434 percent in the third quarter of 2024 to P146.75 billion from P27.46 billion in the same period last year.
The Philippine Statistics Authority compiled the data from the 13 investment promotion agencies (IPAs). Six of them reported foreign investment pledges in the quarter, including the Board of Investments (BOI), BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-BARMM), Clark Development Corp. (CDC), Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
“Of the total approved FI for the third quarter of 2024, South Korea posted the highest investment commitment amounting to P53.72 billion or 36.6 percent. It was followed by Switzerland at P51.84 billion [35.3 percent] and Japan at P15.96 billion [10.9 percent],” the PSA said in a statement.
The manufacturing industry received the largest amount of approved FI at P70.57 billion or 48.1 percent of the total.
This was followed by electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply with P51.92 billion and real estate activities with P13.13 billion.
Among the regions in the country, CALABARZON received the largest share of pledged investment amounting to P58.86 billion or 40.1 percent of the total for the third quarter.
This was followed by Bicol Region with P51.84 billion and Central Luzon with P15.20 billion. These accounted for 35.3 percent and 10.4 percent of the total FI, respectively.
Meanwhile, the total approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals reached P541.29 billion in the third quarter, up by 542.1 percent from P84.29 billion in the same quarter of 2023.
Filipino nationals contributed P394.54 billion or 72.9 percent to the total approved investments in the third quarter.
The approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals in the third quarter of 2024 were expected to generate 33,727 jobs.
This represents an increase of 49.4 percent from the 22,571 expected employment in the same quarter of the previous year, the PSA said.
It said of the total generated employment, 19,265 would be absorbed by foreign investment projects.
