PEZA investments up 58%

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) reported yesterday that investments for January to July surged by 57.54 percent as a number of semiconductors and tourism companies continue to increase their presence in the country.

In a report, PEZA Director General Lillia B. de Lima said that investments for January to July reached P68.61 billion from P43.550 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.

De Lima noted that most of the investments went to expansion projects but there were also new investments especially in the semiconductor and tourism industry.

Despite the big jump in investments, the number of actual projects was almost the same. For the first seven months of the year, the number of projects went up to 296 from 290 projects during the same period a year ago.

In terms of employment, PEZA reported a 21-percent growth to 55,223 from 45,708 last year while exports are expected to grow by 185 percent to $4.4 billion from only $1.55 billion.

Earlier, the D&B Business Optimism Survey showed that PEZA firms were less optimistic when compared to other firms. Economist Victor A. Abola said the reason behind this is that PEZA firms are all export oriented while ordinary firms are domestically driven.

On the upside, the survey showed that employment levels almost doubled as it reached 24 percent from 13 percent. This is because out of the eight indices six went up. Only construction and retail went down. Abola said the increase in employment was expected given the high demand for consumer goods in the previous quarters.

Unfortunately, for the third quarter, the study showed that inventory levels and new orders will drop. “More companies are expecting to lower their inventories.”

Abola noted that inventory levels is in the red at negative 13 percent because of the drop in construction and manufacturing sectors. These two sectors were adversely affected by the rainy season.