Ecozone projects, investments on the rise

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is confident of surpassing its investment approval target as the number of projects approved increased by 8.8 percent to 197 from January to Nov. 16 this year versus last year’s 181 projects.

Figures released by the PEZA showed the year-to-date approved projects consist of 181 locator projects and 16 developer projects.

The investment promotion agency said the investment cost of the approved projects surged by 147 percent to P140.88 billion from P57.05 billion.

In November alone, the PEZA board approved 28 projects worth P9.13 billion.

These include 15 ecozone export enterprise projects, three information technology projects, five facilities enterprise projects, two logistics services projects and three developer-operator projects.

Earlier this week, PEZA director general Tereso Panga expressed confidence in surpassing 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,” Panga said during the PEZA Investors’ Night.

“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.

The agency aims to triple the amount of approved investments to P300 billion this year from P104.7 billion approved by the agency in 2022.