7-month Peza-approved investments up 30.8%

Investment pledges approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) rose by 30.8 percent to P127.5 billion in the first seven months of the year as foreign companies continued to invest and set up facilities in the country.

In the same period last year, the investment commitments approved by Peza reached P97.48 billion, according to Elmer H. San Pascual, group manager of the promotions and public relations group of Peza.

For July alone, Peza approved 12 new export enterprises, making these companies eligible to avail themselves of the fiscal and non-fiscal perks offered by the investment promotion agency to its locators. Of these enterprises, four are owned by Filipinos while the remaining eight are owned by foreigners (Swedish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese).

Twelve new IT companies were also approved in July, of which only one is a Filipino firm, while the rest are managed by foreign companies from Netherlands, Australia, United States, Singapore, and United Kingdom, San Pascual added.

For 2014, Peza expects at least a 10-percent growth in the value of investments to be approved, which will be driven largely by the agro-industrial; electronics (automotive electronics, consumer electronics and printing equipment); garments, bags and shoes; IT services; and transport (aerospace, car parts and shipbuilding).

Peza is one of the government’s investment promotion agencies tasked to promote investments, extend assistance, register, grant incentives and facilitate the business operations of investors in export-oriented manufacturing and service facilities inside selected areas proclaimed as special economic zones.

Peza grants both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to registered enterprises, including income tax holidays and liberalized visa application procedures for foreign nationals, to encourage investments within the ecozones.

There are 17 agro-industrial economic zones all over the Philippines, 197 IT parks and centers, 66 manufacturing economic zones, two medical tourism zones and 18 tourism economic zones in the country to date.