Peza seeks to recover ground lost to congestion

THE PHILIPPINE Economic Zone Authority (Peza) is implementing measures to recover the P25 billion worth of expansion projects that the Philippines may have lost last year due to severe congestion problems at the Port of Manila.

Peza intends, for example, to talk to investors already operating within the economic zones and convince them to proceed with their expansion plans given the reported easing of the congestion at the Port of Manila, Peza director general Lilia B. de Lima said on the sidelines of the Europe Day celebration last Friday.

“We will redouble efforts to bring new investors, and we will try to assure those who held on to their expansions to do them this year,” De Lima explained.

Peza likewise intends to intensify its investment promotion activities, with agency officials set to fly to Japan and Europe to talk to existing and prospective investors.

De Lima said that because investor interest in the Philippines had remained high, Peza can expect a recovery within the next two months.

Peza has thus kept its target of increasing the value of approved investments in its zones by at least 8 percent this year.

In 2014, the total value of investment pledges approved by Peza managed to inch up by a marginal 1.2 percent to P279.48 billion, from the P276.13 billion recorded the previous year.

Peza earlier said the Philippines may have lost as much as P25 billion worth of investments in expansion projects last year, as debilitating congestion problems at the Port of Manila may have dissuaded investors operating within the economic zones from pursuing these plans.

The total investments that did not materialize due to port congestion could be even higher as the number only refers to investments within Peza’s zones.

About half of the estimated P25 billion in stranded investments, however, could still be wooed back if the Philippines could show that it could cope with increasing cargo volume.

It was recently reported that daily port utilization has already normalized at a more ideal level of 60 to 70 percent, way below the high of 105 percent recorded last year.