PEZA approves P2.21B worth of investments in Jan.
THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said it approved 12 projects worth P2.21-billion investments in January.
“We are proud to have closed more than P2 billion worth of investments in the first month for 2024 and confident of securing more investment already in PEZA’s pipeline and awaiting approval in the coming months,” PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga said in a statement.
PEZA said that the investments were approved during the investment promotion agency’s first board meeting at the Baguio City Economic Zone (BCEZ) between Jan. 25 and 27.
Of the 12 new and expansion projects, PEZA said seven are export enterprises, four are information technology (IT) enterprises, and one is a facilities business.
The approved investments are expected to generate $69.62 million worth of exports and generate 1,337 direct jobs.
PEZA said the projects are expected to be built in the Cavite Economic Zone, Cavite Technopark–Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Laguna Technopark, Lima Technology Center–SEZ, Carmelray Industrial Park II–SEZ, Laguna Technopark Annex–SEZ, and First Philippine Industrial Park.
They will also locate in Giga Tower Bridgetowne IT Park in Quezon City, Southwoods Mall in Laguna City, Panorama Tower in Bonifacio Global City, and Jazz IT Center in Makati City.
PEZA has a target of P202 billion in investment approvals this year, which would represent a 15% increase on the P175.71 billion worth of investments approved in 2023.
Mr. Panga said the stretch target is P250 billion, close to its peak results of P250 billion to P300 billion.
He described the January approvals as “good enough, because we just came back from an investment mission. We hope to increase it further at the next board meeting.”
“There are new ones coming in and I think you will be surprised because we will be accepting more big-ticket projects,” he added.
PEZA attended this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in a bid to attract more investment from the US. Some of its prospects are involved in electric vehicles, healthcare, cloud data centers, smart devices, robotics, defense and aerospace, garments, and other export manufacturing industries.
“The companies are in different stages of the investment cycle, so some would still be very fluid, but trust that PEZA always follows through with our leads,” he said.
At last year’s CES, PEZA was able to generate P1.4 billion in investment pledges. The US was the third-largest source of locator investments of PEZA last year, accounting for 14.82% of the total. — Justine Irish D. Tabile