The Philippines has become a more attractive destination of prospective foreign direct investments, placing seventh in a list of economies tagged as “most promising host countries,” the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) 2017 business survey showed.

The survey was part of the Unctad World Trade Investment Report 2017, which discussed global trends and prospects in FDI flows.

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The Philippines ranked 7th in a list of 15 developing and developed countries picked by business executives of multinational enterprises when asked for their top prospective host economies for 2017 to 2019.

This is an improvement from last year, when the country placed 9th, although it trailed behind two other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations —Indonesia and Thailand, which are both third in the list, up from 8th and 14th, respectively.

“The United States, China and India remain the top prospective FDI destinations. Executives maintain their confidence in developing Asia’s economic performance and predict increased investments in SouthEast Asia, with Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore, in that order, all improving their ranking among the most promising host countries,” the report read.

The better prospects reflect the “renewed optimism” in the larger picture as global FDI flows are expected to increase by about 5 percent this year to about $1.8 trillion.

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