PEZA investments up 177%

Investment inflows at the Philippine Export Zone Authority (PEZA) surged by more than 177 percent to P23.811 billion in the first five months of the year from P8.582 billion in the same period last year.

Of this amount, the information technology sector accounted for 15 percent of total or P3.744 billion.

The P3.744-billion investments in the IT sector from January to May this year, PEZA explained, represents an increase of 129.41 percent over the comparable investments for the sector of P1.633 billion.

For the month of May alone, the PEZA Board approved P1.409 billion in new investments which is expected to generates annual average export sales of $60.53 million and provide direct employment to 2,927 workers.

The top three new ecozone locators as of April 31, PEZA said, are Shell Shared Services (Asia) B.V., Clientlogic Philippines, Inc. (CPI) and E-Telecare International, Inc. approved at P28.66 billion.

Shell Shared Services is a 100-percent Dutch firm. It will engage in back office operations including accounting, human resources and other business related processes using IT enabled facilities for other Shell companies operating in various parts of the world.