PEZA books P33.094B investment plans in first four months of 2023

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) saw a 107.51% increase in investment commitments it approved during the first four months of 2023, on the back of strengthened investment promotion and facilitation efforts.

"From January to April 2023, PEZA has approved a total of 60 new and expansion projects worth P33.094 billion investments, which is 107.15% higher as compared to the P15.975 billion approved investments on the same period in 2022," PEZA Director General Tereso Panga said in a statement.

The PEZA chief said the approved investments are also expected to generate about $1.012 billion exports and create 7,469 direct jobs.

In April alone, the investment promotion agency thumbed up 14 new and expansion projects expected to bring in P20.556 billion investments and create 2,233 jobs.

Among the 14 projects, seven are into logistics service enterprises, four are into export manufacturing, and three are IT enterprises.

The said projects will be located in Baguio, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Cebu, and South Cotabato.

"We believe that we are now reaping the results of the ongoing investment missions of President Ferdinand Marcos and his administration’s investment initiatives and it is now up to us to follow through the pledges," Panga said.

"We remain positive that more investments will come to the Philippines with the big-ticket investments that we secured during the President's visits to Japan, US, and Switzerland among others," he added.

"We hope to attract FDI in advanced manufacturing, EV (electric vehicles) industry, RE (renewable energy) development, mineral processing, regenerative agriculture, and frontier technologies particularly in digital health, fintech, blockchain, AI and big data—to boost our mix of industries and value-adding in the ecozones," Panga said. —VAL, GMA Integrated News