PEZA exports decline 3%

Export earnings from the country’s special economic zones declined by three percent to $12.241 billion in the first five months of the year from $12.63 billion a year ago as demand for electronics weakened during the review period.

Bulk of dollar earnings during the five-month period came from the top 10 electronic companies operating within the ecozones – 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.

Based on PEZA records, there are 35 private ecozones and four public ecozones.

The PEZA has separately classified IT (information technology) buildings and parks of which there are 14.

The four government-controlled ecozones are located in Baguio, Mactan, Cavite and Bataan and generated only $2.886 billion in exports.

The 35 private ecozones generated the bulk of the exports amounting to $9.422 billion.

The PEZA, likewise, reported that total employment generated by the ecozones reached 1.097 million jobs.

PEZA exports from January to December 2004 reached $30.9 billion, 13.22 percent higher than the exports recorded from January to December 2003 of $27.3 billion.

The bulk of the exports came from the 39 private ecozone locators.

Exports from the private ecozones alone amounted to $23.8 billion, increasing 16.9 percent from the $20.4 billion in exports posted from January to December 2003.

The four public ecozones were able to export $6.9 billion worth of goods for the 12 month period in review, increasing just slightly by 1.2 percent from last year’s comparable exports of $6.8 billion in 2003.

The special IT buildings and IT Parks, for their part, posted $203.269 million in export of services from January to December last year, increasing 57.7 percent from its exports of only $128.8 million for the whole of 2003.

PEZA also reported that employment in the special ecozones from January to December 2004 reached 1,016,880, increasing 12.1 percent over the 907,127 workers employed as of end-2003.

Thus, for 2004, the PEZA showed a 62.48 percent growth in investments, a 13.22 percent growth in exports and a 12.1 percent increase in employment.