MANILA—The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) recorded a 41.72-percent surge in approved investments in the first 10 months of 2025, reaching P175.36 billion from P123.75 billion in the same period last year and moving closer to its P250 billion-target for the year.
The figure, based on the agency’s board meeting on Oct. 24, 2025, reflects the “continuing confidence of our locators and partners in the ecozone program and the country’s long-term investment potential,” according to PEZA director-general Tereso Panga.
Panga said the P175.36 billion already represented more than 70 percent of the conservative P250-billion investment goal for 2025.
“With strong pipelines of projects still under review, we are confident and optimistic of meeting and hopefully even exceeding our 2025 investment goal of P250 billion,” he said.
The total approvals covered 243 projects, including pioneer and expansion ventures, which are projected to generate $6.08 billion in exports and create 59,937 jobs. Of the total, P140.11 billion came from 27 approved big-ticket projects.
PEZA’s positive performance, showing double- to triple-digit growth across all key indicators, provides a measure of optimism for the country’s investment landscape, even as the broader investment environment remains cautious amid global uncertainties, Panga said.
The upward investment trajectory is expected to boost the gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for 2025 and 2026, given the 10-percent increase in actual ecozone exports and 5-percent rise in employment for January to September 2025, compared to the same period last year.
Manufacturing continued to dominate the approvals with 112 projects, followed by IT-BPM with 60, domestic market-oriented projects with 21, facilities with 19, ecozone development with 19, logistics with eight and utilities with four.
Luzon hosted the bulk of the new approvals with 178 projects, while 29 were located in the Visayas and eight in Mindanao. Filipino investors led the top nationalities of locators, followed by Japanese, Caymanian, South Korean, Chinese and American investors.
PEZA approved P20.661 billion worth of new investments across 28 projects in October. These are expected to yield $1.58 billion in exports and 9,507 jobs. Three of these were big-ticket ventures, accounting for P16.32 billion.
The majority of October projects were located in Region IV-A with 23 approvals, while the National Capital Region (NCR) secured four, and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) had one. Manufacturing remained the biggest contributor with 14 projects.
