The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) saw its registration of investment pledges increase by nearly 54 percent in the first quarter of the year to more than P25.3 billion, compared to year-ago level.
In a statement on Wednesday, Peza said investment commitments in the first three months last year reached only about P16 billion, down 27 percent from the level in the same period in 2019, mainly due to the disruptions caused by the Taal Volcano eruption in January and the COVID-19 outbreak.
The latest figures suggest that investor interest remained even after the passage of the CREATE law, or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, which Peza had initially opposed out of fear that it would drive away new investments. After the measure underwent revisions to address stakeholder concerns, Peza eventually supported it.
The CREATE law cuts corporate income taxes across the board, offering relief to Philippine-based companies that have long been dealing with one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the region.
It also rationalized the tax incentives system.
“[The] Philippines is still indeed an investment haven,” Peza Director General Charito Plaza said in the statement.
A total of 57 new projects comprised the latest Peza-approved investment commitments, 43 of which will be located in Luzon, 10 in Visayas and four in Mindanao. These include projects in manufacturing, economic zone development, and information technology and business process management sectors.
Once completed, these projects are expected to create a total of 5,601 new jobs, Peza said. Economic zones in the country currently employ 1.58 million workers.