Foreign investment pledges hit record high in 2019
Foreign investment commitments hit PHP390bn (US$7.7bn) last year, the highest since 1996 when the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) started releasing such data. According to PSA data, approved commitments climbed by 17.3% to PHP112bn in Q4 last year.
Most of the commitments were approved in the second half of 2019, and the full-year figure was 112.8% higher than the previous year. By sector, information and communication (IC) made up 56.2% of the total pledges in 2019 with PHP219.38bn. This was 70.4 times more than the PHP3.12bn a year ago.
The government counts investment pledges from seven investment promotion agencies, or IPAs, which are authorized by law to grant tax and non-tax incentives to investors setting up businesses or expanding existing ones in priority sectors.
