MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is targeting investments to exceed P100 billion this year as it steps up efforts to attract investors.
“Best aggressive PEZA target is to attain three digits, more than a hundred billion against last year’s P95 billion,” PEZA director general Charito Plaza said in a statement yesterday.
To achieve this, she said the agency would work with both public and private stakeholders to bring in new investors to the country, as well as to get existing locators to stay and even expand operations.
Last year, the PEZA approved P95 billion worth of investments, down 19 percent from the P117.5 billion in 2019 as the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease pandemic affected firms’ decisions to pursue investments.
Of the total investments approved by the PEZA last year, foreign investments rose 21 percent to P59.73 billion from P49.26 billion.
By sector, investments for the manufacturing industry reached P34.44 billion, 13 percent higher than P30.35 billion in 2019.
Meanwhile, investments for the information technology – business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry were down slightly to P17.41 billion from P17.58 billion.
As part of efforts to encourage foreign investors to invest in the country, PEZA is holding the Global Biz monthly investors’ forum to serve as a venue for investors, industry associations, foreign chambers, investment promotion partners, ecozone developers and operators, economists and local government units to discuss business and investment opportunities in the economic zones.
For the monthly forum, the PEZA will be focusing on different countries and industry sectors.
“The Global Biz is one of our promotional and marketing strategies which we will use aggressively to continue attracting investors to the Philippines,” Plaza said.
“We remain committed and steadfast in performing our mandate despite the difficulties and hope that we will be able to attract more foreign direct investments in the country, keep the PEZA brand of service renowned worldwide, and help the Philippine economy bounce back and even become a self-reliant, self-sustaining, and resource-generating investment haven in Asia,” she said.
Apart from attracting new investors, the PEZA also continues to provide assistance to existing locators.
For the period Jan. 4 to 8, PEZA said 2,608 registered companies were in operations and had over 1.1 million employees working under various work arrangements.
The PEZA said the IT-BPO sector was operating at 84 percent, while manufacturing was at a higher 88 percent.