Sp’l ecozone exports soar 36%

Export earnings of locators inside special economic zones went up by a strong 36 percent to $12.626 billion in the first five months of the year, from $9.308 billion in the same period last year, the Philippine Econnomic Zone Authority (PEZA) reported over the weekend.

PEZA attributed the expansion to a recovery in demand from the country’s major markets such as the US, Europe and Japan as well as the opening up of new markets like China.

The private ecozones accounted for the bulk of export earnings with $9.791 billion during the five-month period, or a notable 46.377-percent increase over the comparable exports of $6.689 billion a year ago.

The public ecozones reported total exports from January to May this year of $2.762 billion, posting a modest growth of only 7.3 percent from the $2.574 billion in exports recorded for the same five-month period last year.

Exports, in terms of services rendered, by the IT buildings/parks amounted to $72.48 million from January to May this year, showing a growth of 60.488 percent compared to the $45.162 million exported from January to May 2003.

There are only four public ecozones as compared to the 35 private ecozones and 14 IT buildings/parks.