Port congestion still hounding businesses

Investment pledges approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) fell by 19 percent to P103.15 billion in the first seven months of the year, as investor confidence remained affected by the port congestion problems that started last year.

Despite this decline, however, the number of projects approved by Peza increased to 360 from January to July this year from only 337 projects approved a year ago, said Elmer H. San Pascual, Peza group manager for promotions and public relations.

San Pascual said that top investments approved were mainly for the expansion projects of semiconductor, electronics and IT companies already operating within Peza-managed ecozones. Another big investment commitment was for a tourism enterprise.

“We are still reeling from the aftereffects of the port congestion problems last year. The situation at the port is now back to normal and is much better than last year. However, many investors are concerned about the long term and if the port congestion will happen again. Last year, some of the orders that were supposed to be for the Philippine-based companies were redirected to counterparts in Indonesia and Malaysia,” San Pascual said.

“We have to bring back the confidence of our investors and remove any doubt that last year’s port congestion problems will happen again,” he added.

San Pascual earlier said that the Philippine economy may have lost an estimated P25 billion worth of investments in expansion projects in 2014 due to the congestion problems at the Port of Manila. He was optimistic, however, that at least half of that may still be recovered if the Philippines could show that it can cope with additional cargo volumes during the peak season.

The bulk of investment pledges approved by Peza and the Board of Investments, amounting to around P3.15 trillion, came in during the first five years of the Aquino administration on the back of confidence in the local economy during the said period.

On the other hand, three years and four months of the Ramos administration saw the value of investment pledges by the two agencies hitting P2.378 trillion; P2.341 trillion under the nine years and five months of the Arroyo administration; and P663 billion under the two years and seven months of the Estrada administration.

“As of June 2015, 46.8 percent or P1.38 trillion of the P2.94 trillion of Peza-approved investments since 1995, and 31.7 percent or P1.77 trillion of the P5.59 trillion of BOI-approved investments since 1992, came in during this administration,” government data showed.

“Peza-approved investments during this administration (July 2010 to May 2015) produced 624,874 direct employment or 51.8 percent of the total 1.2 million created by all Peza-approved investments since February 1995,” the data also showed.