Foreign investment approvals surged in the third quarter of 2017, but the year-to-date tally remained low, compared with the figure posted a year ago, the government reported on Thursday. However, for the first three quarters of the year, total approved foreign investments fell 9.9 percent to P84.06 billion from P93.34 billion in 2016. Japan was the top prospective investing country in the quarter, with P21.4 billion worth of commitments, representing 49.7 percent of total foreign investment pledges. Projects of foreign and Filipino investors approved by the seven IPAs in the third quarter are expected to generate 37,891 jobs. FINL revisionMeanwhile, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said the approval of the revised Foreign Investment Negative List (FINL) that is seen to spur foreign direct investments in the country would happen early next year.

Source: Manila Times December 14, 2017 18:00 UTC