THE Joint Foreign Congress (JFC) said on Thursday that they see a high potential for domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Philippines.
“The Joint Foreign Congress sees the Philippines as a high potential country, and the country now has a major opportunity to grow rapidly through increased domestic and foreign direct investment. 2012 looks to be a higher growth year with estimates as high as 6 percent projected from the additional effects of the now fast track rollout of government spending programs, PPPs [public-private partnerships] and private investment,” said Australia-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce (ANZCC) President John Casey during the “Arangkada Philippines Forum: Moving Twice as Fast!” held at the Marriot Hotel in Pasay City (Metro Manila) on Thursday.
The JFC emphasized the pace of FDIs to sustain the historically high economic growth in 2010.
But the Philippines has never achieved the levels of FDI that Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam have achieved, Casey said.
“In 2011, Indonesia had a 20-percent increase in FDI approvals to $19.3 billion, while the Philippines remained below $4 billion in approvals and $1 billion in actual inflow. While we can acknowledge this figure does not include some of the continuing reinvestment from existing corporations invested here, FDI remains disappointing and we run the risk of some lesser developed Asean countries receiving higher levels of FDI than the Philippines,” he added referring to the member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The JFC is hopeful that the high level of Board of Investments approvals last year and the record inflow of $1 billion in foreign funds into the Philippine Stock Exchange in the last two months is indicative of increasing levels of FDI in 2012 and the coming years.
“The Asian Century is well underway, and the Philippines must elevate its position to benefit from the FDI opportunities in the ‘7 Big Winners’ industry sectors at a time when the impacts of multiple free trade agreements starts to be felt across participating economies,” Casey added.
==============================================================================
By: Raadee S. Sausa
Source: The Manila Times, Jan. 27, 2012
To view the original article, click here.
Subscribe to the Arangkada NewsRoom via RSS
Comment here