Peza: PH has ample room for investors

MANILA, Philippines—Companies looking to set up shop in the Philippines need not jostle over space as the country has over 3,000 hectares of economic zone property available, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority said on Wednesday.

“We are now pushing the private sector to develop more ecozones (economic zones) mostly for manufacturing. We will not run out of space, unlike one of our neighbors, where investors will need to wait for a year or two to get the land area they want,” Peza director general Lilia de Lima said on the sidelines of the Arangkada Forum on Wednesday.

“This [scenario] will not happen in the Philippines because ecozones are being expanded as we talk now. We have enough sites … the existing zones are continuously expanding at no cost to the government,” de Lima explained.

Of the 3,000 hectares available for the manufacturing sector, some 1,000 hectares are located in Mindanao. The rest are in Cebu, the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region, and Central Luzon.

De Lima earlier identified one such ecozone now being put up in Mandaue City, Cebu.

The Norkis group of companies is building a five-tower cyberpark worth about P6 billion, she said. The project is expected to generate 38,000 new jobs and become a flagship business for the group.

Other ecozones and parks are being expanded as well, including the industrial park operated by Lima Land Inc. Aboitiz Land is reportedly expanding its existing 200-hectare park by another 150 hectares, de Lima said.

Meanwhile, Peza continues to woo investors through various roadshows, the latest of which was held earlier this month in China.

Several Chinese firms have reportedly expressed their interest in putting up manufacturing facilities in the country. Some of these companies will be in the country later this week, de Lima said.

This year, Peza is targeting a 10-percent increase in the number of approved investment pledges, due to the economy’s high GDP growth, strong remittances from abroad, domestic consumption and investor confidence.

Last year, investment pledges approved by Peza stood at P276 billion. In January this year, approved investments surged by 250 percent to P20.58 billion, from the P5.875 billion recorded in the same month in 2013.