PH surpasses Malaysia, Thailand in net foreign direct investment

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. (File Photo: OJ Serrano/Unsplash)

MANILA – 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.

In a press chat with trade reporters Friday, 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.

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 BOI Chair Alfredo Pascual said the IPA aims to hit PHP1.3 trillion to PHP1.5 trillion in investment approvals for 2024.

“Since we reached PHP1.26 trillion, at least PHP1.3 to PHP1.5 trillion (in 2024),” Pascual replied when asked for BOI target investment approvals this year.

The lower-end target represents a 3-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 PHP1.26 trillion.

The IPA was PHP240 billion short of its PHP1.5 trillion target approvals last year.

Initially, BOI set the target for the previous year at PHP1 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 PHP995.

59 billion in approved investments.

“We missed to approve PHP272 billion, which could have brought our approvals to PHP1.532 trillion (in 2023),” BOI Director Eries Cagatan explained.

She added that PHP272-billion projects were already discussed by the Board but official action is withheld due to pending compliance with certain requirements in the energy sector.

Investment prospects

Supporting the BOI’s target approvals for 2024, BOI Director Ernesto Delos Reyes said there are PHP930 billion worth of investment prospects that could register this year.

These are in the One-Stop Action Center for Strategic Investments (OSAC-SI), or the green lane, which Delos Reyes is also leading.

He mentioned that PHP370 billion of the applications in the OSAC-SI already received Green Lane Certificate of Endorsement, PHP360 billion are under evaluation, and PHP200 billion is an incoming application from SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC), eyed as the world’s largest solar project.

Marcos signed Executive Order 18 in February 2023 directing all national government agencies and local government units to expedite the processing of licenses, permits, and other related documents for projects with huge economic impact.