MANILA – The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) on Wednesday said its Board has approved a total of 50 new projects with investments reaching PHP22.5 billion last July 10.
In a statement Wednesday, the PEZA said 33 of these projects are expansion projects of its locators.
They registered a total of PHP13.8-billion investments.
Seventeen newly-registered projects were economic zone development with investments that amounted to PHP8.7 billion.
Of the total new projects, 40 will be located in Luzon, six in Visayas, and four in Mindanao.
About 44 percent of the total investments came from domestic companies, and the remaining 56 percent were from foreign investors.
These foreign sources include Australia, China, Japan, Singapore, and the United States.
“The approval of new projects and investments is the agency’s positive action to continuously support the Philippine economy in our endeavor to maintain our competitiveness for investments despite the impact of Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019),” PEZA Director General Charito Plaza said.
As many Filipinos lost their jobs amid the pandemic, the latest investment approvals in PEZA will create 8,917 new jobs.
“Covid-19 cannot stop PEZA in performing its mandate to register, manage, and operate public and private economic zones in the country. PEZA continues to attract investors to come and invest to the Philippines despite the crisis,” Plaza added.
As of January 2020, a total of 1.56 million jobs were created in PEZA and exports revenue reached USD4.4 billion.