The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) said on Thursday it remains optimistic that the moratorium on land conversion will not affect its efforts to set up more economic zones nationwide.
Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza told the BusinessMirror on the sidelines of the Global Investment Forum at F1 Hotel that the agency received a total of 29 new ecozone applications.
These applications, unlike the 32 ecozones that are already awaiting the President’s approval, still need to complete documents and would have to be evaluated by the Peza Board, which is slated to meet next week.
“Right now, those that are due for presidential proclamation already that we have approved in the Peza Board, there are 32 new economic zones and then, right now, we have about 29 pending. We’re waiting for them to submit some documents,” Plaza said.
Plaza added that once the proponents of the ecozones comply with the requirements of Peza, these will be approved by the
investment promotion agency immediately.
Once approved, these proposals will be forwarded to the Peza Board for another level of approval, then submitted to the Office of the President. The list of pending economic zones includes a proposal to create a 1,500-hectare special economic zone in Mauban, Quezon, which will also have its own airport and wharf.
Under the proposal, around 200 hectares will be donated to the government for relocation of national executive, legislative and judicial offices.
“We have a lot of new, big investments that require huge lands and, if I may add, we have also a palm-tree plantation from Malaysia, which needs 280,000 hectares to plant palm trees and put up the refinery of oil because, accordingly, we are now importing palm oil as much as 5 million tons a year. So if this agri-industrial ecozone, which will be located in Agusan, will be realized, this will be a big boost to lessen our importation of oil,” Plaza.
She added that another applicant is proposing to build a special economic zone in Leyte. The proponent is a British-Filipino steel company that intends to build a steel plant in the province.
Plaza said Leyte was the perfect location for the company since iron is abundant and of high quality in the province. The plant will also require nickel and chromite, which will be sourced from Surigao.
She added that this will be a big help since the country’s steel imports reach $5 billion a year. “We have so many pending investors, we have so many pending developers waiting for these economic zones to be identified nationwide,” she added.
These proposals will be good additions to the Peza’s aim of increasing the number of ecozones, which can continue even under a land-conversion moratorium.
This includes untapped land in Mindanao, which, she said, contributes as much as 40 percent to the country’s GDP but fail to receive the same amount in terms of development or investment. Peza is now studying the number of available government land and islands nationwide so that it can determine the best locations for ecozones.
“We have many lands. If you look around, there are so many vacant lands around us. The biggest landowner, in fact, is the government. We have so many public lands which are not tapped, which are idle, which are not planted, which are not utilized and only grasses are growing,” Plaza said.
“[These lands] will not be covered once the moratorium is approved, particularly the special economic zone or Peza’s project of establishing economic zones,” she added.
Plaza said that, while Peza has been successful in ushering in investments into the country, it failed to increase the number of ecozones nationwide.
She added that ecozones need not be dedicated to heavy industry, but to other kinds of industries. This includes tourism economic zones, which requires a minimum of 5 hectares to as much as 25 hectares.
Other economic zones, however, will require a minimum of 25 hectares and above to accommodate plantations, manufacturing and processing industries, support
facilities and others.
These economic zones can also attract the business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry, banks and financial intermediaries, schools, malls, hotels, retirement villages and others. Apart from large economic zones, the Peza is also willing to explore locating special economic zones in cities such as Quezon City, which will help decongest traffic in Metro Manila.
Building places of work nearer to where people live will shorten travel time and ensure work-life balance among Filipinos.
Plaza’s presentation during the last day of the Global Investment Forum focused on revolutionizing Peza.
The Global Investment Forum is the first gathering of its kind organized by the Philippine First Investment Council Corp. The event gathered businessmen and policy-makers to discuss the pressing economic issues of the day.
Earlier the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said the implementation of a two-year ban on land conversion would keep millions of poor families homeless and delay the government’s infrastructure projects.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda Director General Ernesto M. Pernia said the Neda has circulated a two-page position paper to members of the President’s economic team to prevent the imposition of the ban on land conversion.
Pernia said there is already a draft executive order to create the two-year ban. However, this policy is being held in abeyance awaiting the opinion of the economic team. If the ban is implemented, Pernia said this will limit the ability of the government to carry out the relocation of informal-settler families and delay right-of-way acquisition for infrastructure projects.