Investments in CV in Q1 drop by 63.5%

Foreign pledges, however, increased

Cebu City’s exciting skyline |CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Investment pledges in Central Visayas dipped when the world practically stopped during the first quarter of 2020 due to threats of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in a report made on June 4 and signed by National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa, found that the total amount of foreign and local investments made in the region for the first three months stood at P2.88 billion.

It was 63.2 percent lower compared to the first quarter in 2019 when Central Visayas’ pledges amounted to P7.89 billion.

The region is also the third among all 17 regions in the country with the highest rate of decrease in investment commitments, next to Bicol Region which dropped by 90.7 percent. Calabarzon is the region with the biggest drop at 93.4 percent.

READ MORE: Philippine Statistics Authority: 23.1% drop in foreign investment pledges for CV in 2019

Foreign investments

While there was a drop in the total amount of investment pledges made in Central Visayas, as of March 2020, however, its foreign investment (FI) is at P1.30 billion.

PSA said it was a 33.3 percent increase compared to the P976.7 million posted for the same period in 2019.

FI refers to the practice of business owners and firms of investing in a foreign country.

When materialized, these commitments are then turned into foreign direct investments that usually involved the establishment of business interests.

Investments covered in PSA’s report are those approved by six investment promotion agencies (IPAs) – Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corporation (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA).

“No investment approvals were reported from BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-BARMM) for the reference quarter,” PSA noted in their report.

They also posted a total of P29.4 billion of approved FI from January to March this year, which is 36.2 percent lower compared to the same period in 2019.

READ MORE: Q1 foreign investment pledges fall 36.2%

“Approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals in the first quarter of 2020 were expected to generate 34,814 jobs, lower by 17.6 percent compared with the previous year’s projected employment of 42,245. Out of these anticipated jobs, 89.0 percent would be absorbed by projects with foreign interest,” they added.

Most of the FI commitments for the first quarter of 2020 came from the United Kingdom with P6.1 billion. It was followed by the United States, and the People’s Republic of China with P5.7 billion and P4.9 billion respectively. /dbs