Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 25) — Investment commitments in the Philippines surged by 64.65% in the first three months of 2021 despite the country’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.
Citing data from the Board of Investments, he said total approved investments over the January to March period hit ₱137 billion, higher than the ₱83 billion witnessed a year earlier.
“Dahil bukas na ang ekonomiya, patuloy ang investments bagaman tayo ay nasa gitna pa ng pandemya,” Roque said during a Palace briefing on Thursday.
[Translation: Since our economy is already open, investments continue to come in even though we are still in the midst of a pandemic.]
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed late in February that investment approvals for the entire 2020 fell 13% to ₱1.14 trillion against the ₱1.31 trillion posted in 2019.
Approved investments are commitments or pledges made to investment promotion agencies, and not the actual foreign direct investments which the central bank reports. In other words, what the BOI has approved are plans, not actual projects set up by the investors that usually file proposals with the agency in order to qualify for certain tax exemptions.
From January to mid-March, Metro Manila and nine other areas were placed under general community quarantine, while the rest of the country under the most relaxed modified GCQ.
Despite imposing a GCQ status, quarantine controls had been eased to help revive the economy, as what economic managers have been pushing since last year after the Philippines entered into recession in August.
RELATED: Lockdowns push PH economy into recession, dives 16.5% in Q2
However, amid the rising COVID-19 cases in Mega Manila, the government decided to impose GCQ in an area designated as the NCR Plus ‘bubble’ from March 21 to April 4.
READ: EXPLAINER: What you need to know about the NCR Plus bubble
