4 Asian firms mull investment in Philippine eco zones

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is hoping to secure within the first half of the year big investments from four Asian companies that have expressed interest to put up large manufacturing plants in the country.

In an interview, PEZA director general Lilia De Lima said the potential investments would be a big boost to the country’s resurging manufacturing sector once secured.

“We need many manufacturing companies,” De Lima said.

The names of the companies were not disclosed, but De Lima hinted the potential investors are from Asia.

PEZA promotion and public relations group manager Elmer San Pascual said each of the four firms are initially looking to get between 25 to 30 hectares of land within PEZA-administered economic zones. 

“Definitely, those investments will be by the billions, Once a company reserves an area from five hectares and up, that would be billions already,” De Lima said.

Last year, San Pascual said the single biggest investment PEZA received amounted to P15 billion from a manufacturing company.

He said the project would employ between 1,500 to 2,000 in its initial three years of operations.

Total investments approved by PEZA for 2015 reached P295.09 billion, up 5.58 percent from 2014’s P279.48 billion.

The investments came from a total of 598 projects.