What's Driving The Philippines Investments To Grow? - YouTube

The Philippines' investments are expected to  boom in the coming years, led by the newly  

integrated regulation that now eases the foreign  ownership problems in the past. But even before  

the new regulation was enacted, the Philippines  was already an attractive investment destination  

around the world, and it has been going on  for decades now. According to the Philippines  

Statistics Authority, from 1996 to 2021, the total  approved inflow of foreign investments amounted to  

around $90 billion US dollars, which is a figure  today that is roughly a quarter of the Philippine  

nominal gross domestic product. So what has kept  the Philippine Investments on a relative level  

during the past decades? Before we move on don’t  forget to leave us a like and subscribe for more!  

These investments were mainly driven by  the sheer growth of the nation’s economy.  

But specifically, amongst the largest bulk  of investments that went inside the nation,  

a large bulk of it went into the so-called  economic zones governed by the Philippine  

Economic Zone Authority or PEZA for short,  and along with other authorities as well.  

These economic zones are designated locations  created by the authority to encourage investments,  

and they do this by giving better tax incentives  for firms that operate inside the zones. So,  

these benefits and among others have brought in a  myriad of local and international companies that  

would want to take the benefit. Hence, it lured  in a ton of foreign investments to the nation,  

especially into the business processing  outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing  

industry. According to PEZA, there are now  over 4670 companies residing in over 415  

zones in the Philippines, ranging from information  technology parks to medical tourism centers and  

manufacturing economic zones. And these zones  have clearly contributed a lot to the nation,  

considering how big the BPO industry is, or even  how big some of the other sectors mentioned are.  

Take for example Japan, a large investor in the  Philippines, but more so in these economic zones.  

There are over 962 Japanese companies currently  operating in these zones and have a combined  

investment that amounted to around $14 billion  dollars, which resulted in over $11 billion  

dollars in export and also the employment of  over 350,000 lives. Furthermore, the largest  

economic zone in the nation has also recently  been announced, which is called the Quezon  

Techno-industrial Special Economic Zone which is  a $2.4 billion dollar project. The economic zones  

have played a really vital role in driving  the Philippine investments, with the easing  

of the foreign ownership, we think that these  zones will greatly increase as the Philippines'  

economic outlook could increase due to this change  as it attracts more foreign investments and then  

results in a better market, and aside from that,  we are also entering the world of digital in the  

Philippines. These digital growths are driving  the next wave of Philippine-foreign investments,  

and it is not just because of its massive BPO  industry, the Philippines is home to a very  

large internet community, there are around 152  million mobile connections, and the average user  

spends over 11 hours on the internet, which  is in all truthfulness, an excessive amount.  

But because of this, the internet economy grew,  so much so that one of its sectors that are  

e-commerce is expected to have a contribution  to GDP of over $24.2 billion dollars in 2022,  

which is a growth that positions the society  as the fastest-growing market globally. This  

shift in demand resulted in the construction of  several infrastructures that need to support it,  

such as data centers, which are becoming more  common in the nation, in part to accommodate the  

massive online growth. Moreover, the Philippines'  digital growth has also kick-started the rise of  

the startup economy. Which is filled with  technology enterprises looking to make the  

next big break in the nation. And is one of the  key sources of investments around the world.  

According to the Philippine Venture Capital Report  2022, the local startups had a record-breaking  

number after it raised over a billion dollars in  2021, up from what was raised in 2020, which was  

around $369 million dollars. These were spread  out in over 92 deals, with financial technology,  

e-commerce, and entertainment being the biggest  winners. The startup economy is primed not just  

for a robust 2021 year, but for the future.  As the Philippines’ internet market grows,  

this also means that the startups will try and  occupy that market, which then impacts the amount  

of investments coming inside these startups.  These investments, on the other hand, come from  

both local and international venture capitalists.  The largest institutional investor by number of  

investments made is known as Kickstart Ventures,  a subsidiary of Globe Telecommunications, which  

have funded Southeast Asian and Filipino startups  called Igloohome, a Singaporean-based smart locker  

company which raised $12 million dollars in its  most recent funding, NextPay, a Philippine-based  

digital banking platform with audience targeted  to small businesses and entrepreneurs, Edamama,  

quite a unique approach as it is a e-commerce  platform directly for mothers, and the famous  

rising live streaming services called Kumu. The  largest independent network of investors, however,  

is locally known as the Manila Angel Investors  Network, which has been part of several funding  

rounds in companies like Filipino ghost kitchen  MadEats, Tech-Enabled Exporting Startup 1Export,  

and Agriculture Technology startup Fortuna  Cools, that aims to help the ocean healthy,  

which is a key product as the Philippines ocean  environment is seeing quite a harsh damage.  

Lastly, Yield Guild Games, a player in the world  of blockchain, which is taking on the world of  

crypto from the Philippines. This is probably  one of the most exciting venture capitalists in  

the nation, after all, blockchain, NFT’s, bitcoins  and the like have seen an explosion in popularity,  

and from what it looks like it, it is going  to become a huge market. With that said, Yield  

Guild Games has joined several funding rounds for  these exciting applications in the crypto space,  

such as Jambo and Heroes of Mavia, or Crypto  Raiders and Civitas, quite much more actually.  

These blockchain based startups are mostly aiming  to have products or services that are aimed at the  

upcoming web3 or as they say the next generation  of the internet. These three investment firms  

are just among the largest in the nation that is  taking the entire Philippine Investment landscape  

to a different level. Amongst these, there is also  one sector that is slowly gaining traction in the  

Philippine economy, relatively small as of today,  but for the future, it holds a large potential.  

And, yes, it is no other than the electric vehicle  industry, and hold up, you might think that the  

Philippines holds the potential to become a strong  electric vehicle hub? Well, actually it is because  

of the nation’s abundance of nickel. According to  the United States Geological Survey, in 2019, the  

two largest nickel-producing nations are Indonesia  and the Philippines. And as electric vehicle  

experts know, nickel plays a critical role in  producing lithium batteries, which are basically  

a critical part of electric vehicles. With  the Philippines' position as among the largest  

producers of this ingredient, they will play a  role in the future of the electric vehicle demand.  

Hence, why today, the government has established  key initiatives to support this drive, both  

presumably because of the potential in the nickel  market but also the need to have an electrified  

ambition for the automotive industry, and also as  the competition starts to emerge as even Indonesia  

or Thailand have their own plans. Take a look at  the in-house company that the Philippines have,  

namely the Integrated Micro Electronics or IMI,  it is a player that according to its annual  

reports has contracts with international electric  vehicles firms all around the world. While it is  

unknown whether they use the nickel production  as a base for their operations, it still shows  

that the Philippines is in prime position to take  the opportunity of this field when given to them.  

These three are becoming key to the growth  of the Philippine investment landscape,  

far more than may have a far larger potential to  make a mark in the entire economy of the nation.