The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said Friday it approved P2.21 billion worth of investments in January.
PEZA director-general Tereso Panga said during the agency’s first board meeting at the Baguio City Economic Zone (BCEZ) that he was hoping for bigger project approvals in the coming months.
“We are proud to have closed more than P2 billion worth of investments in the first month for 2024, and confident of securing more investments which are already in PEZA’s pipeline and waiting for approval in the coming months,” he said.
PEZA said it generated $69.62-million exports and 1,337 direct jobs from 12 new and expansion projects, including 7 new ecozone export enterprises, 4 IT enterprises and 1 facilities enterprise in January.
The new and expansion projects are in Cavite Economic Zone (CEZ), Cavite Technopark-Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Laguna Technopark, Lima Technology Center-SEZ, Carmelray Industrial Park II-SEZ, Laguna Technopark Annex-SEZ, First Philippine Industrial Park, 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 aims to generate P250 billion investments in 2024, after it ended 2023 with P175.7 billion worth of investments.
Panga said it approved P175.7-billion investments in 2023, up by 24.88 percent from P140.7 billion in 2022. The number of projects also grew by 20.10 percent to 233 from 194.
PEZA said it saw a significant increase in investments from South Korea, Taiwan, China, Australia and the EU, while employment at the economic zones also improved with 40,527 additional full-time employees.