PEZA sets 2010 investment target at P201.67 billion

MANILA, Philippines - Investments in the country’s economic zones are expected to rise by 15 percent to surpass the P200-billion mark this year.

Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) director general Lilia B. De Lima said that their target is to hit P201.67 billion this year following a good performance in 2009 wherein they exceeded their 10-percent target.

“This will be difficult but we need to catch up with other countries,” she said. “This year will be a better year.”

De Lima said that investments in the electronics sector will continue to fuel the growth but said they are also focusing on getting investments in manufacturing.

Last year, in terms of the number of investors, De Lima said many came from the electronics sector. “They dominated the investments because even at the height of the financial crisis, electronics companies continue to expand just like Toshiba.”

Despite the global crisis, PEZA posted a 13.3-percent growth in approved investments at P175.365 billion from new and existing companies in 2009, up 13.3 percent from P154.773 billion a year ago.

Projected annual export sales from these investments is $11.510 billion which is 110.58 percent higher than the $5.466- billion projected export sales from approved investments for the same period last year.

De Lima said the agency has met all their targets except for the employment target. Employment in the ecozones contracted by 3.27 percent in 2009 when jobs created was 79,435, lower than the 82,123 jobs created in 2008.

The numbers of projects registered by PEZA last year was 502, lower than the 513 projects. The biggest investment for the year was made by Japanese firm Taganito, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. and Nickel Asia Corp. The group put in P62 billion for its mining operations.

Total new investments for information technology projects amount to P14.298 billion in 2009, which is 29.35 percent higher than the approved investments of P11.054 billion in 2008.