MANILA -The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) approved P80.58 billion worth of investments from January to June, nearly three times more than what it recorded in the same period in 2022, marking a strong finish for the government investment promotion agency during the first half of the year.
Data released by Peza on Monday showed that its approved investments during the six-month period grew by 258 percent compared to the P22.489 billion recorded in the same period last year .
“We remain optimistic that we will sustain our positive growth trajectory for the second half of the year, given the notable increase in our [key performance indicators] on investments, jobs and exports from a more aggressive whole-of-government approach in investment promotion,” Tereso Panga, director general of Peza, said in a statement.
For the month of June alone, the Peza approved a total of P32.558 billion worth of investments spanning 22 projects, all of which are expected to create 3,475 jobs and produce $481.880 million worth of exports.
Tallying all the approved investments since the Marcos administration began in July 2022, the Peza said it had generated P198.796 billion worth of investments from a total of 206 projects.
These investments have resulted in 1.805 million actual direct jobs and exports worth $58.494 billion.
The Peza said the big-ticket projects—which have capital investments totaling P154.966 billion—are into economic zone development, export manufacturing and economic zone facilities.
The government agency also said they were ramping up their investment promotion and facilitation initiatives to bring in more foreign direct investments to the Philippines, adding that they would conduct follow-through missions following the recent overseas trade missions led by President Marcos.
“This June, Peza welcomed several French, Czech, and Dongguan delegations to the Philippines and facilitated the learning visit and study tour of the Ugandan and Papua New Guinean delegation. Peza likewise received delegations from China, Taiwan and Japan in the first semester of the year,” Panga said.
Further, the Peza said it was implementing several automation initiatives to enhance the ease of doing business in the country, partnering with the Department of Information and Communications Technology to fast track the implementation of their digitalization and to align with the automation efforts of the whole government.
-CSN
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