PH surpasses Malaysia, Thailand in net foreign direct investment
THE Philippines has surpassed the net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of Malaysia and Thailand in the first three quarters of 2023, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said.
Rodolfo said the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand recorded double-digit declines in net FDI inflows last year, while Vietnam’s growth was minimal at 2.25 percent.
He said the country’s 15.93-percent decrement in net FDI inflows from January to September last year was the lowest compared to the neighboring countries such as Indonesia, down by 18.75 percent; Thailand, down by 50.75 percent; and Malaysia, down by 61.31 percent.
The less sluggish drop in net FDI inflows last year made the country surpass Malaysia and Thailand, according to Rodolfo, who is also the Managing Head of the Board of Investments.
For the first three quarters of 2023, the Philippines’ net FDI inflows amounted to USD5.88 billion, higher than Malaysia’s USD4.99 billion and Thailand’s USD4.44 billion.
Except for Singapore, the latest data made the Philippines the third highest net FDI inflows in Southeast Asia, following Vietnam at USD15.91 billion and Indonesia at USD16.33 billion.
“And in this context, we are saying that we are really hopeful that at the end of the President’s term, we would be the second biggest destination of FDIs in Southeast Asia,” Rodolfo said in a press chat with trade reporters Friday, Jan. 5.
He added that this aspiration of the Marcos administration is possible with the pipeline of investments that the country attracted, especially during the official foreign trips of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and the outbound investment missions of investment promotion agencies (IPAs), such as renewable energy, mineral processing, and manufacturing.
2024 BOI Target
DTI secretary and Bureau of Investments (BOI) chair Alfredo Pascual said the IPA aims to hit P1.3 trillion to P1.5 trillion in investment approvals for 2024.
“Since we reached P1.26 trillion, at least P1.3 to PHP1.5 trillion (in 2024),” Pascual replied when asked for BOI target investment approvals this year.
The lower-end target represents a three-percent increase while the higher-end target will be 19-percent growth from full year of 2023’s approved investments by the BOI Board of P1.26 trillion.
The IPA was P240 billion short of its P1.5 trillion target approvals last year.
Initially, BOI set the target for the previous year at P1 trillion before the agency decided to stretch the goal to PHP1.5 trillion as early as February 2023.
Under the National Expenditure Program (NEP), BOI targeted only P995.59 billion in approved investments. (PNA)/PN
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Tags: BUSINESS
