PEZA approvals surge to P141 billion

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) expects to surpass its investment approval targets for this year as investments approved from January to November have surged by 146.95 percent.

“We have sustained this growth momentum from January to November 2023; investment approvals amounted to P140.9 billion,” PEZA director-general Tereso Panga said at the PEZA Investors’ Night.

In the same period last year, the PEZA approved a total of P57.049 billion worth of investments.

“With two more board meetings to go, we will surpass our targets for the year with flying colors,” Panga said.

According to the PEZA, the conservative end of its investment approvals target for this year is P154 billion.

“Our fearless forecast is P300 billion,” Panga said earlier.

The P300 billion maximum target is more than double the P104.7 billion investments approved by the agency in 2022.

In the first week of October alone, the PEZA approved P20.55 billion worth of investments for 25 projects, a 100-percent increase from a year before.

These projects include 13 export-oriented projects, logistics projects, six information technology projects, two ecozone facilities projects and one ecozone development project.

From January to September, approved investments by the PEZA have resulted in actual exports of $47.791 billion and direct employment of 1.78 million.