46 projects worth $14.2B funded by Marcos trips
DTI: Investment pledges over the past 16 months are now being actualized, boosting the position of the Philippines as a premier investment destination
Daily TribuneDTI: Investment pledges over the past 16 months are now being actualized, boosting the position of the Philippines as a premier investment destination
About $14.2 billion in investment pledges from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s trips abroad in the last 16 months had started materializing, Malacañang said on Sunday.
It said data from the Department of Trade and Industry showed that 46 projects worth $14.2 billion, or 20 percent of the total pledges, are now running or have finished registering with DTI’s Investment Promotion Agencies.
On the other hand, around 148 projects worth $72.2 billion have been invested at various stages as of last December.
Industries getting the investments include infrastructure, agriculture, retail, Information Technology and Business Process Management, renewable energy, manufacturing, and transport and logistics.
Manufacturing has the largest share among the sectors, with 16 projects or 35 percent; followed by IT-BPM, 10 projects or 22 percent; and renewable energy, nine projects or 20 percent.
“Investment pledges from foreign firms during the presidential visits over the past 16 months are now being actualized substantively and tangibly, boosting the position of the Philippines as a premier investment destination for foreign businesses in Asia,” Malacañang said.
“The President visited key countries, introducing to specific investor communities his overall vision and policy direction of opening up the country to more foreign investments, including implementing game-changing legislation under his term,” it added.
The US and Japan are the major investment sources based on the amount of completed projects. The US has 13 completed projects, and Japan has 21 completed projects.
For the other 102 projects worth $58 billion, foreign investors are still planning and working in their own countries to prepare them for action.
Some investment projects go from being committed to being operational very quickly. However, Malacañang said that offshore wind and major physical infrastructure projects need a longer implementation time of up to seven years.
Malacañang added that the implementation time length depends on the investment type. Investing promises made during presidential trips have mostly come true in the IT-BPM sector and light manufacturing, where implementation times were relatively short.
“While the (foreign direct investment) values are modest, the early actualization of investment commitments in these sectors contributes to the decrease in the unemployment rate in the Philippines, given that IT-BPM and manufacturing are significant generators of direct employment,” it said.