2022 Peza investment registration exceeds goal

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) on Tuesday said it had exceeded its investment target for this year with P140.7 billion worth of investment projects approved from January to date, arresting years of decline.

According to Peza ,  198 projects were approved for registration during the period, up by 103 perent from the P69.3 billion tallied for the entire 2021.

“Despite the 29.85-percent decline in the first semester of the year 2022 compared to the first semester of 2021, we never lost hope that we will recover,” Tereso Panga, officer in charge and director general of Peza, said in a statement.

“At the rate we are going now, Peza has achieved this year the level of annual investments approved in 2018. That means the country’s ecozones and high-performance investments are back to prepandemic (levels), even surpassing the 2018 level,” added Panga.

Approved investments by the Peza reached P140.2 billion in 2018, P117.54 billion in 2019, P95.03 billion in 2020 and P69.30 billion in 2021. For this year, Peza was targeting an increase of only 6 percent to 7 percent from year-ago level.

The Peza said its board, which is presided by Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual as chair, had approved 13 new and expansion projects  on Dec. 15, which were expected to bring in P83.651 billion worth of investments.

Three of these projects involve ecozone developments while 10 projects are into export manufacturing and six were IT (informations technonogy) ventures that are locating in ecozones, according to Peza.

These projects will be established in Taguig City and in the provinces of Pangasinan, Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Cebu and Negros Occidental.

In terms of employment and exports, Peza said it was able to create more tha 1.850 million direct jobs and generate $54.39 billion in exports as of October 2022.

“With the increasing GDP growth rate of the Philippines, we can expext more FDIs (foreign direct investments) to register with Peza. What’s important is we keep building and sustaining the confidence of investors and the country’s competitiveness in investment promotiogns and facilitations.

The Peza said it was strengthening its investment promotion and facilitation efforts through the ecozone program, in line with President Marcos’s aim  to position the country as a preferred investment destination.

“We are also actively engaging various government agencies and industry partners, among others, to aggressively promote the Philippines,” Panga said, adding that cooperation among sectors will result in regulatory coherence and further enhance the ease of doing business in the Philippines’ economic zones.

The main sources of investments in the Philippines’ economic zones from January to December this year were Japan, Singapore, Netherlands, United Kingdom, USA, India, South Korea, the Republic of China, the British Virgin Islands, and Taiwan.

Strategic  importance 

 In his  first State of the Nation Addres,  President Marcos Jr.  highlighted the strategic importance of ecozones and the need to promote productivity-enhancing investments, which are best hosted by ecozones. 

 Panga said, “We cannot register productivity-enhancing investments if we do not have the ecosystems to provide our investors so that they can be viable with their operations in the Philippines.” 

“Ecozones can be shields. At this time of crisis, ecozones can be shields to soften the landing of the headwinds, the external headwinds and all these global disruptions happening. The other side to this is that ecozones can be economic drivers. We are in that unique opportunity to contribute to countryside development and accelerate our economic growth,” he added. 

In its statement, Peza quoted Rep. Emigdio Tanjuatco III of the House Committee on Trade and Industry as saying, “economic zones in the Philippines have risen to become an important export promotion tool and economic policy instrument to attract foreign direct investments, leading to job creation, export earnings, elimination of trade barriers, and revenues for both the national and local government.” 

To date,  there are 415 ecozones in the country. Except for four public ecozones, the rest are owned, developed and managed by the private sector. The four government economic processing zones  are in Bataan, Cavite, Baguio City and Mactan Island in Cebu.

Peza, through the trade secretary, has endorsed a total of 16 more ecozone development projects for proclamation by the President with a total capital investment of P18.032 Billion.