Philippine Economic Zone Authority
MANILA -The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) on Tuesday said it pre-qualified eight economic zone projects worth P33 billion during the first half of the year, paving the way for the next approval process for these big-ticket investments.
The Peza said these projects—three of which are manufacturing ecozones, one information technology (IT) center, and four IT Parks—will undergo scrutiny by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB), the interagency government body that which grants tax incentives.
The largest among these projects is the P27.18-billion manufacturing special economic zone dubbed the North Cebu Economic Zone in Medellin, Cebu.
The other two manufacturing ecozones—which have a total project cost of P233.260 billion—are the expansion projects in the Lima (Lipa-Malvar) Technology Center-Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Malvar, Batangas, and the Gateway Business Park-SEZ in General Trias, Cavite.
As for the IT parks with a total investment of P1.47 billion, three will be located in Araneta City, Quezon City, while the remaining one will be situated in South Cotabato City.
The last of the pre-qualified projects is the P4.12-billion IT Center that will be put up in Makati City.
Tereso Panga, director general of Peza, said that the investment value of these new ecozone development projects marked a 579.23-percent increase compared to the P4.86 that they recorded in the same period last year.
“This uptick in ecozone development investment is crucial as it indicates a growing demand for proclaimed areas, which is further supported by the rise in new and expansion projects,” Panga said in a statement.
The Peza official also touted the recent streamlining of the economic zone proclamation process through Board Resolution No. 23-138, which cut down the number of documentary requirements in the process.
—Alden M. Monzon INQ
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