Investments registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) doubled to P33 billion in the first four months of the year from P16 billion in the same period in 2022 after the agency okayed P20.6 billion in April alone.
For the four-month period, PEZA approved 60 new and expansion projects which are expected to generate about $1 billion exports and create 7,469 direct jobs once operational.
In April alone, PEZA greenlighted 14 new and expansion projects which are expected to create 2,233 jobs.
Seven of these projects are into logistics service enterprise, four into export manufacturing, and three are information technology enterprises. These projects will be located in Baguio, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Cebu, and South Cotabato.
The biggest project pre-qualified by PEZA for Fiscal Incentives Review Board approval is the P19.7 billion biomass fuel products manufacturing project of Buyo-buyo (Piper aduncum-shrub).
For the first quarter of the year, locators in ecozones generated $15.75 billion actual exports. In March alone, these companies generated $5.4 billion export revenues which accounted for 82.65 percent of the total country’s$6.53 billion for the month.
“We remain positive that more investments will come to the Philippines with the big-ticket investments that we secured during the President’s visits to Japan, US, and Switzerland among others,” said Tereso Panga, PEZA director-general.
