Total foreign investments approved in the fourth quarter of 2019 reached P112.1 billion or 17.3 percent higher compared with P95.6 billion in same period in 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Thursday.

This growth in investment pledges came from the seven investment promotion agencies, namely: Board of Investments, Clark Development Corporation, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority as well as the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.

F0reign investments for the fourth quarter of 2019 were mainly driven by investments from China (PROC) which accounted for 77 percent, followed by South Korea and the United States of America (USA).

China committed P86.3 billion. Meanwhile, South Korea and USA pledged P6 billion and P5.5 billion or 5.3 percent and 4.9 percent of the total approved FI, respectively.

Approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals in the fourth quarter of 2019 were expected to generate 55,946 jobs, lower by 23 percent compared with the previous year’s projected employment of 72,630.

Out of these total anticipated jobs, 78.8 percent would be absorbed by projects with foreign interest. DMS