2017 was rather interesting year for economies of three neighbouring countries – China, Japan, South Korea. The latter’s investments down, while China, Japan becomes very active in the investing in the development of the region.
Korean investments in the Philippines are shrinking, while Chinese investors are making their big comeback and the Japanese continue to see the country as an investment destination, data from two of the country’s largest investment promotion agencies showed.
Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines president Hiroshi Shiraishi said various factors such as labour cost, easy communication in English, competitive incentives, and rules of the domestic market continue to draw Japanese investors to the country.
According to Hiroshi Shiraishi, the existing Japanese companies in the Philippines expanded very aggressively in addition to the new foreign direct investments from Japan. In fact, Japan investments up significantly in 2017.
Investments coming from South Korea to the Philippines, meanwhile, are heading towards the opposite direction compared to their Asian counterparts.
“Recently, South Korea is a bit behind compared with China and Japan. As head of the Korean Chamber, I do hope for more investors and investments from Korea as the Philippine economy is positive and is an emerging market,”
South Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines president Ho Ik Lee said.
2017 Asian investments: facts and figures
Data from Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and Board of Investments (BOI) showed that investments approved by Korean investors in the 10 months ending October plunged significantly to P793.05 million from P8.11 billion last year.
Broken down, investments approved from China by PEZA alone soared 980 percent year-on-year to P1.48 billion, while that from the BOI grew 32 percent year-on-year to P540.18 million.
PEZA-approved projects from Japan jumped 214 percent year-on-year to P22.74 billion, while those from the BOI declined 35.43 percent to P4.41 billion.
South Korean investments from PEZA and BOI, meanwhile, registered a 53.41 percent and 99.87 percent drop, respectively, to P784.65 million and P8.4 million.
