THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said its locators posted growth of 14% to $63.061 billion on their exports in 2021.
PEZA Director-General Charito B. Plaza said in a statement on Thursday that employment in registered economic zones (ecozones) rose 13.91% to 1.782 million jobs in 2021, equivalent to about 217,700 new jobs, Ms. Plaza said.
PEZA said it approved P69.301 billion worth of investments in 2021, adding that the estimated annual export sales from these new investments is $2.138 billion. Approved investments for 2021 declined 27%.
It said the new investments are projected to create 35,245 direct jobs across 249 new projects.
The current roster of ecozones is 415.
Of the 2021 investments, PEZA said manufacturing accounted for P25.509 billion while information technology (IT) projects took in P7.322 billion.
“PEZA-registered tourism and export enterprises engaged in technical testing and analysis, installation of system for factory automation, technical support, and quality control (made a) comeback, (with) P2.058 billion and P545.019 million in investments respectively in 2021,” PEZA said.
Ms. Plaza said Japan was the top investor, accounting for 21.7%. Other major investors were South Korea, India, Hong Kong, China, Germany, Austria, the US, Denmark, France, and Canada.
“As of Nov. 15, 2021, we have 961 PEZA-registered Japanese companies. Japan’s investments reached P22.870 billion last year, a 190.20% increase from P7.881 billion in 2020. Their total approved investments from 1995 to 2021 is P728.337 billion,” Ms. Plaza said.
PEZA said the Calabarzon region (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) attracted the most investment with P25.263 billion.
“While the COVID-19 pandemic posed more economic challenges to foreign direct investments (FDIs) in 2021 than in 2020, PEZA remains committed and hopeful in attracting more local and foreign investment for the year 2022,” Ms. Plaza said.
PEZA Deputy Director General Tereso O. Panga said the agency is targeting 6% investment growth in 2022.
Regarding regulatory matters, he added that “ecozone investors complained about some provisions of the Republic Act 11534 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law on tax incentives, the slow proclamation process (for incentive eligibility), the moratorium on I.T. center development in the National Capital Region (NCR), and the late promulgation of the Strategic Investment Priorities Plan, which affected their investment plans for last year,” he added.
In January, PEZA’s board approved nine new and expansion projects involving P3.480 billion in investment.
“Estimated annual export sales from these investments is $56.090 million with the creation of 732 direct jobs,” PEZA said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave