Employment generation in PEZA up 18% in 1st 4 months

MANILA, Philippines - Employment generated by companies in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) went up by 18.165 percent to 671,745 in January to April from 568,476 jobs in the same period last year.

Most of the jobs were located at private ecozones with 312,290, followed by IT Parks and buildings with 235,733. Jobs in public ecozones were 123,722.

Meanwhile, exports went up by 42.88 to $12.69 billion during the four-month period from $8.882 billion last year. Exports from public ecozones recorded the biggest growth at 54.94 percent or to $2.68 billion from $1.731 billion. Majority of the exports were from private ecozones at $8.674 billion from $6.026 billion a year ago.

Earlier, PEZA reported that investments for the first four months went up by 110.73 percent when compared to the same period a year ago. PEZA investments for January to April rose to P37.65 billion from only P17.868 billion during the same period a year ago.

For the first quarter, PEZA Director General Lillia B. De Lima said the agency approved P28.85 billion worth of investments compared to the P13.67 billion a year ago. De Lima said this represents a 111 percent jump in investment commitments.

The biggest investor of PEZA was Japanese firm Nidec who infused P1.320 billion for a manufacturing plant in Laguna.

PEZA said they will be breaking the P200 billion mark in investments this year as they hope to grow by 15 percent in 2010. De Lima said that their target is to hit P201.67 billion this year following a good performance in 2009 wherein they exceeded their 10 percent target.