Investment approvals jumped 107 percent in the first four months to P33.09 billion from P15.97 billion in the same period last year, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority said Thursday.
PEZA, one of the country’s major investment agencies that provide tax incentives, administers economic zones and IT parks across the country.
PEZA director-general Tereso Panga attributed the increasing project approvals to the non-stop trade and investments missions organized by the Marcos administration.
“PEZA approved 60 new and expansion projects from January to April. We believe that we are now reaping the results of the ongoing investment missions of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his administration’s investment initiatives, and it is now up to us to follow through the pledges,” Panga said.
Project approvals in the first four months have the potential to bring in $1 billion worth of additional exports and generate 7,469 direct jobs, according to PEZA.
The PEZA board approved 14 new and expansion projects in April with combined investments of P20.56 billion and potential employment for 2,233 workers.
Among these investment commitments are seven logistics service enterprises, four export manufacturing projects and three IT enterprises. The projects will be located in Baguio City, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Cebu and South Cotabato.
The biggest project pre-qualified by the PEZA board is the P19.7-billion biomass fuel manufacturing using buyo-buyo (Piper aduncum-shrub) as feedstock. The project was endorsed for approval by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board.
Meanwhile, Panga said total exports by PEZA locators reached $15.753 billion in the first quarter despite reports of widening trade deficit.
“In March alone, we generated $5.39-billion export revenues which account for 82.65 percent of the country’s total $6.528-billion exports in March this year,” he said.
The Philippines generated $1.3 billion in investment pledges and 6,700 jobs in the recent US visit of President Marcos, an indication of American investors’ renewed interest in the country.
“We hope to attract FDIs in advanced manufacturing, EV industry, RE 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.
“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, the US and Switzerland, among others,” he said.