MANILA -Investment pledges made through the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) are firmly on track to hit the agency’s “conservative” full-year target of P154.77 billion for 2023, especially with the Philippines securing sources of inflows such as the free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea signed earlier this month.
Peza data show that as of Sept. 18, the investment promotion agency has racked up 72 percent or P111.2 billion of its goal for this year.
That amount represents a 180-percent surge from the P39.6 billion worth of pledges received in the January-September period of 2022.
“We are confident that we will exceed our conservative 10 percent growth this year given the increasing number of ecozone applications filed with our office as well as big-ticket projects and long-term investments that we expect to register this last quarter of 2023,” Peza Director General Teroso Panga said in a statement.
He noted South Korea’s status as the 10th-largest economy and 2nd most technologically advanced nation in the world next to Germany.
READ: PH signs free trade agreement with South Korea
Considering that, “the Philippines stands to benefit from this FTA, which opens more opportunities for investors, increased market access, FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows, higher value-added production and export diversification combined with deeper economic cooperation and innovation partnership,” Panga said.
With September not yet over, Peza has already registered P1.41 billion worth of investments from South Korea —so far, an increase of 39 percent.