PEZA investments surge by 171%

Investments registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in the first quarter this year soared 171.12 percent to P53.75 billion against P19.825 billion in the same period last year with increasing contribution from the tourism sector.

PEZA Director-General Lilia B. De Lima reported to Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory L. Domingo, who is also PEZA chairman, that there were 185 projects the agency approved in the January-March period this year or 36 percent higher than the 136 projects registered in the same period in 2012.

De Lima said that while there has been a notable rise in tourism investments, the manufacturing sector which includes electronics and semiconductors still remain the largest sectoral investment. PEZA is still consolidating investments according to sectors.

“Our first quarter investments are a combination of tourism and manufacturing projects,” De Lima said.

Initially, PEZA reported that of the 185 total projects approved, the IT sector continued to lord it over all others with 80 projects or 63.27 percent higher than the 19 IT projects approved in the first three months in 2012. The 80 IT projects have combined investments of P3.531 billion or 23.13 percent more than the P2.868 billion approved in the first quarter of 2012.

The tourism sector, however, contributed a huge P19.5 billion of total investments approved in the first quarter, De Lima said.

Tourism projects still continue to register with PEZA because the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) law, which is supposed to register tourism projects with incentives, has no implementing rules and regulations yet on how to grant the government tax perks to investors.

“By law, TIEZA can give incentives but they have to iron out how to proceed,” De Lima said.

Once operational, these PEZA projects are expected to generate 25,038 jobs and exports of $1.6 billion a year.

PEZA-registered enterprises are entitled to government tax perks including income tax holiday, zero duty on imported capital equipment, among others. PEZA projects have also a high realization rate of over 90 percent.

Source: Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat, Manila Bulletin. 2 April 2013.