Export earnings of special ecozones hit $2.4B in Jan

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) reported yesterday that export earnings of special economic zones amounted to $2.357 billion in January this year, an increase of almost 25 percent from the $1.886 billion recorded in the same period last year.

PEZA said the latest figures were boosted largely by the strong performances of electronic companies operating within the ecozones.

The Top 10 electronic companies located in the ecozones include Texas Instruments, Toshiba Information Equipment Phils. Inc., Intel Technology Philippines Inc., Fujitsu Computer Products Phils. Inc., Amkor Technologies, Philips Semiconductor, Epson Precision Phils. Inc., Samsung Electronics Phils. Mfg. Inc., Panasonic Mobile Communications Corp. of the Philippines and Ionics EMS Inc.

There are 47 privately-owned and operated ecozones while only four are controlled by the government.

The four government-controlled ecozones are located in Baguio, Mactan and Bataan.

The four public ecozones generated $523.42 million in exports, $9,608 million compared to their exports of $477.545 million in January last year.

The 47 private special ecozones, thus, generated the bulk of the exports amounting to $1.834 billion, which posted a growth of 30 percent compared to the exports of only $1.409 billion in January last year.

The PEZA also reported that in terms of employment generation, the public and special ecozones generated cumulative employment for 973,420 workers.

However, of the 973,420 jobs created, 389,368 workers are directly employed in the ecozones, while the majority of 584,052 workers are indirectly employed by the suppliers and support services of the ecozone locators.

For the whole of last year, export earnings of locators in the ecozones amounted to $27.33 billion.

In 2002, export earnings of the PEZA locators amounted to $22.77 billion, up from $19.5 million recorded in 2001.