-
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority hopes to hit the P300-billion investments approval mark for this year
-
PEZA director general Tereso Panga says the agency is on track to reaching its ‘conservative target’ of P160 billion this year
-
The agency is speeding up investment promotion and facilitation initiatives to bring in more foreign direct investments
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) hopes investment approvals will reach as much as P300 billion this year, even if its “conservative target” this year is only P160 billion.
“Right now, the latest investment approvals that we have is about P97 billion already, which is 3.3 times than what we approved last year,” PEZA director general Tereso Panga said in a recent TV interview.
“I think with five or six months to go, we are confident that we will exceed our set targets for 2023,” he said.
“But if all leads will be realized within the year, there are strong chances that we can still hit our maximum target of about P300 billion,” the PEZA chief said.
The P300-billion maximum target is double the P104.7 billion investments approved by the agency in 2022.
For the first seven months of the year, PEZA had already approved investments totaling P97.163 billion, a 332% jump from P22.489 billion in the same period last year.
RELATED READ: Marcos proclaims 3 new ecozones; PEZA approved investments up 332%
The PEZA Board prequalified eight big-ticket ecozone development projects in the first half of 2023. These investments are expected to bring in investments of P33.002 billion.
Included in the approved new and expansion ecozone projects are three manufacturing ecozones, one IT (Information Technology) center, and four IT parks.
The PEZA chief also said they are speeding up investment promotion and facilitation initiatives and ease of doing business programs to bring much-needed foreign direct investments to the country, in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s lead in attracting global investors.
