Ecozone investments up 85% in first half

Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) director general Lilia B. de Lima expects investments in the country’s economic zones to rise this year compared with last year’s performance.

De Lima said her optimism is based on a rising trend in the number of new export enterprises registering with PEZA and the amount they are investing.

De Lima said 46 new export enterprises were approved by PEZA from January to June this year with investments amounting to P11.694 billion, or an increase of 85 percent over last year’s P6.313 billion. Registrants in the same period last year numbered 36.

"The first half figure does not even include new facilities, utilities, and information technology (IT) enterprises," De Lima said.

De Lima attributed the increase in the number of new export enterprises to the steady recovery in the electronics sector which accounts for 64 percent of total products manufactured in the ecozones.

For the seven-month period, investments approved by PEZA amounted to P20.8 billion.

Among the latest investments was the P1.3-billion project of Honda Parts Manufacturing Corp. which was approved in July.

Honda is projecting annual average export sales of $46.03 million and job generation for 228 workers.

Another approval in July was the P346-million additional investment of Texas Instruments (Philippines) Inc. for the manufacture of generic-ball grid array packages and various products for electronics industry.

Texas Instruments’ new project is expected to earn $170.3 million in export receipts and would provide employment for 35 workers.