The Philippine Economic Zone Authority said Monday it approved P268.36 billion worth of investments in the first 365 days of the Duterte administration.
Peza director-general Charito Plaza said the amount was equivalent to P735 million in daily approved investments from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017.
The agency also approved a total of 564 projects during the period, translating into a daily approval rate of 1.54 projects, she said.
Plaza said these investment projects generated 73,043 jobs from July 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017, or about 240 jobs daily.
Data from Peza showed that exports from economic zones and IT enterprises reached $42.103 billion from July 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017. This translated into daily exports of $138 million during the period.
Plaza attributed the strong Peza performance to the confidence of investors in the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
She said she was confident that the growth in Peza’s investments, exports and employment would continue over the next five years of Duterte’s term as more investors were expected to come to the Philippines.
She said new investments outside the traditional investment sources of Peza started to show interest in the country those from the Middle East and China.
Plaza, however, said stripping the agency of tax incentives might affect future investments in the Philippines and enterprises supplying the requirements of export industries.
A revised computation showed that the Philippines would lose as much as P250 billion in local purchases if the tax reform program would push to impose the proposed enhanced value added tax refund system on local purchases.
Plaza earlier said local suppliers might lose to imports if export-oriented industries decided to bring in their requirements from other countries, which would be cheaper compared to sourcing from local companies under the new tax regime.