Nearly half of PEZA’s P175.7B approved investments in 2023 from Marcos trips, says Panga

Nearly half of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority’s (PEZA) approved investments last year can be attributed to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s foreign trips.

“In 2023, out of the total P175.7 billion in investments that we approved, we can attribute 43% of that to the presidential visits,” PEZA Director General Tereso Panga told reporters at the sidelines of the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.

“The way we arrive at this figure, we simply look at the countries visited by the president and compare it with the nationalitly, by nationality of what was registered in PEZA,” Panga said.

The PEZA chief said that investments approved by the agency cannot be tied strictly to the presidential visits “because actually all the investments coming in is a result of our strong economic fundamentals, our incumbent President.”

Panga, nevertheless, said the President has been most active in promoting the Philippines to global investors. 

PEZA’s total approved investments in 2023 grew by 25% from P140.7 billion in 2022. For 2024, the agency is targeting P250 billion worth of investments approved.

Panga said all PEZA’s current indicators are up for exports and employment, manifesting the Philippines’ upward trajectory for 2024, which is something that is expected for the year and onwards because of its excellent gross domestic product (GDP) performance since 2022.

“The Philippines happens to have the highest GDP growth rate in ASEAN since ’22 po, for three years in a row now. That makes the Philippines one of the best performing economies in the region,” he said.

Panga said that Marcos assumed office at a time that the country was recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It quickly recovered in the second half of his administration, with the country achieving a 103 percent increase in investments, he said.

Currently, PEZA has 422 operating economic zones covering manufacturing, agri-industrial, tourism, IT-BPM, with of all the operating economic zones becoming home to more than 4,300 export-oriented locator companies, Panga explained. —VAL, GMA Integrated News