PEZA OKs P6.4B investments in January

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said Wednesday it has approved a total of P6.393 billion worth of investments in the first month of 2023.

Year-on-year, the amount of investments booked with PEZA grew by 83.69% from P3.48 billion approved in the same month in 2022.

“The PEZA Board has approved a total of 19 new and expansion projects of ecozone locators and developer/operators expected to bring in P6.393 Billion investments,” PEZA officer-in-charge Tereso Panga said in a statement.

Broken down, the P6.393-billion of green-lit investments consisted of 18 new and expansion projects —11 for export manufacturing enterprises, four for facilities enterprise, two for IT enterprise, and one for domestic market enterprise — amounting to P2.277 billion.

The bulk or P4.116 billion of the approved investments in January was for one economic zone development project.

The approved projects will be located in Makati City, Pasay City, CALABARZON, Cebu City, and South Cotabato.

“With the positive start of the year, we are bullish with our outlook this year, targeting a 10% investment growth based on the initial locator sector targets,” Panga said.

For 2023, the PEZA is targeting a 10% increase on investments higher from the P140.7 billion investments recorded for January to December 2022—which was a 103.03% increase compared to the same period in 2021.

The PEZA chief said the investment promotion agency will strengthen the implementation of the ecozone development program with the launch of the new Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 on January 30.

“With the inclusion of the ecozone development program in the new Philippine Development Plan, we are positive that more ecozones will be approved and created especially in the countryside,” Panga said.

“Ecozones can be shields to soften the landing of the headwinds, the external constraints, and all these global disruptions happening especially during this time. The other side to this is that ecozones can be economic drivers to accelerate economic recovery and growth,” he said.

Under the PDP 2023-2028, PEZA is tasked to expedite the implementation of the ecozone transformation roadmap which expands the different types of special economic zones registrable under PEZA, including “the new frontiers for ecozone development.”—AOL, GMA Integrated News