The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) is planning to establish two public economic zones per region and follow the model of China by offering free use of land to locators for a set number of years.
Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza said these initiatives can attract more investors, instead of relying solely on the initiative of private economic-zone developers.
“I want to build more public ecozones to give us more leeway to attract investors. I plan to do what China and Vietnam are doing, for 10 years they give investors free use of the land,” Plaza told reporters in a briefing on Thursday. “We can benchmark against Vietnam and China, as long as the industries come in and we create jobs.”
Peza manages and operates four public economic zones in Cavite, Mactan, Pampanga and Baguio. Private economic zones, meanwhile, number to 366. It was a stated policy thrust of the Peza in the previous administration to leave ecozone development to the private sector so as not to compete with them.
According to Plaza, rent per square meter in public ecozones goes as low as P19 to P27.
Aside from rent free land for a set number of years, locators in public ecozones can also benefit from streamlined provision of government services. “We can get support in terms of facilities and utilities from the government, like the Department of Public Works and Highways can provide the road network, for example,” Plaza said.
On the downside, potential locators to public ecozones will also be subject to some government red tape in compliance and availment of services. Plaza is looking at adding two public economic zones per region, or 36 additional ecozones. These will likely be included in the National Economic Zone Map project being crafted by the Peza to be rolled out in a few weeks. These will be separated from the private and local government-owned ecozones.
The Peza administers Republic Act 7916, or the Special Economic Zone Act of 1995. Under the law, several types of economic zones may be developed, such as industrial estates, export-processing zones, free-trade zones and tourism parks.