Philippines is seen attracting more foreign investments in industries that employ skilled workers, such as banking and finance, business process outsourcing (BPO) as well as manufacturing mainly due to low labor costs and production costs, according to the Department of Finance’s chief economist.
The manufacturing as well as the financing and insurance activities were among the sectors with the most foreign direct investment (FDI) according to a data showed by the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas as of end-October last 2015. FDI in manufacturing rose 115% year-on-year to $624 million during the first 10 months of 2015, comprising a 12.5% of the total. In financial and insurance activities, which accounted for 10.7% of total FDI at end-October, investments slid by 28.4% year-on-year to $531.8 million.
Beltran attributed the “robust” FDI in the manufacturing and financial sectors to two reform initiatives recently introduced by the government—the Department of Trade and Industry-led Manufacturing Resurgence Program as well as Republic Act No. 10641 signed by President Aquino in 2014, which allows the full entry of foreign banks.
