Ecozone investment pledges hit P71B

THE PHILIPPINE Economic Zone Authority approved close to P71 billion worth of new investment pledges in the first eight months, 31.2 percent higher than the P54.1 billion committed in the same period last year.

In a report to Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo, Peza Director General Lilia de Lima said that of the pledges, P53.8 billion came from locators and P17.2 billion from developers.

The commitments included both new investments and expansions of existing projects.

The 332 projects that the Peza board approved in the January-August period were mostly locator projects in the manufacturing and information technology sectors. Only 39 projects were attributed to economic zone developers or operators.

According to Peza data, the newly approved investment commitments should generate close to $5.2 billion in exports.

The expected number of new jobs, on the other hand, came up to 58,260, 11.1-percent higher than the 52,421 jobs created in the same period a year ago.

In the January-July period, investments registered with the Peza soared 57.5 percent to P68.6 billion from P43.6 billion in the same period last year.

This meant that investments pledged in August alone reached P2.4 billion.

For the entire 2010, De Lima said in an earlier interview that Peza targeted a 15-percent growth in investments, a 10-percent jump in exports and a 10-percent increase in employment.

Peza last year approved P175.4 billion worth of new investments, mostly manufacturing and IT projects.

For the agency to reach its 15-percent investment growth target for the year, investments in the September-December period should total at least P130.7 billion.

In an earlier interview, Domingo said the government would be conducting more inbound than outbound missions to give potential investors a first-hand look of what the Philippines had to offer as an investment location.

He said the change in strategy was but logical since it would be easier to convince investors to come here if they saw for themselves what the country had to offer, instead of just being told positive stories about the Philippines.

Abigail Ho, Phil. Daily Inquirer