The rising foreign direct investments in the country could be partly traced to the Duterte administration’s effective campaign against corruption and criminality, the Finance Department said over the weekend.
Net inflows of foreign direct investments jumped 43.5 percent year-on-year to $2.2 billion in the first quarter, indicating the sustained strong investor confidence in the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals.
FDI net inflows reached $682 million in March, up 27 percent from $537 million recorded in the same month in 2017.
“These are actual investments that flowed into our economy that helped create jobs and fueled growth. We should be more concerned with FDIs that are delivering economic benefits to the people, rather than pledges,” Finance assistant secretary Paola Alvarez said.
Alvarez said the increase in FDI inflows “is testament to the strong vote of confidence by investors in the economic strategy of the Duterte administration, which is anchored on an aggressive spending
program on infrastructure and human capital development to achieve inclusive growth.”
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III earlier said President Rodrigo Duterte made the country a safer place for investors, with his campaign against corruption and criminality leading to a decrease in
crime volume by 21.86 percent since the start of his administration.
Dominguez also said the increasing volume of FDIs supported the Duterte administration’s efforts to shift the economy from consumption- to investments-led growth, which would then help create decent, well-paying jobs for the young and well-trained Filipinos entering the workforce in the coming years.
He said the government was also revisiting its Foreign Investments Negative List to open more areas for joint ventures and direct investments, reviewing its procedures to reduce red tape and shorten approval time for business start-ups and exploring possibilities for expanded e-governance using digital technologies.
President Duterte recently signed the Ease of Doing Business Law, which creates a unified business application form and a central business portal to make it easier for investors to open or renew
businesses. It also mandates a zero-contact policy to reduce official corruption.
Foreign businessmen brought a record $10 billion worth of investments into the country last year, up by 21.5 percent from the previous year.
Dominguez said last year’s high volume of FDI inflows indicated a “broader and sustained increase of investment inflows into our economy.”
