Foreign investment commitments approved by investment promotion agencies (IPAs) jumped by 68 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, with the bulk to go to manufacturing activities, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Preliminary data from the PSA yesterday showed that total approved foreign investments in the second quarter amounted to P115.20 billion, higher than the P68.48 billion recorded in the same period of 2025.
The data is based on the reported approvals for the second quarter of the following IPAs: Authority of the Freeport of Bataan, Bases Conversion and Development Authority, Board of Investments, Bangsamoro BOI, Clark Development Corp., Clark International Airport Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
These foreign investment commitments reflect investor interest and may be realized in the future.
These are different from the foreign direct investments data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which refer to investments already deployed in the country.
PSA data showed that the Netherlands was the largest source of foreign investment pledges in the second quarter, contributing P50.74 billion or 44 percent of the total.
This was followed by Germany with P18.05 billion (15.7 percent) and Singapore with P9.95 billion (8.6 percent).
By sector, manufacturing had the largest share amounting to P78.81 billion or 68 percent.
Real estate activities placed second with P11.09 billion (9.6 percent), followed by electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply with P8.81 billion (7.7 percent).
In terms of location, the Cordillera Administrative Region received the highest share of foreign investment pledges amounting to P55.74 billion or 48 percent of the total.
Central Luzon was the second biggest recipient with P36.81 billion (32 percent), followed by CALABARZON with P14.75 billion (12.8 percent).
Total approved investments from both foreign and Filipino nationals in the second quarter also jumped by 73 percent to P541.51 billion from the P312.87 billion in the same quarter of 2025.
These investments are expected to generate 32,167 jobs, down by 22 percent from the 41,203 jobs expected in the same period of 2025.
Around 85 percent or 27,266 of the jobs to be created are expected to come from the approved foreign investments.
For the first half, total approved foreign investments reached P169.98 billion, 76 percent higher than the P96.47 billion in the same period last year.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said that going forward, the government’s catch-up spending would improve investor confidence or sentiment and help boost economic growth.
‘If anti-corruption measures and other related priority reforms that further level up governance standards would be taken seriously, these would be the missing and remaining important catalyst that would help improve investor confidence or sentiment that, in turn, would also lead to more investments,’ he said.