Investment pledges registered at the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) jumped by 94 percent in the first nine months of the year largely due to the economic zone’s development.
According to the investment promotion agency, pledges amounted to P196.46 billion in the January-to-September period this year, a 94.12 percent improvement over the P101.20 billion registered in the same period of last year.
The P196.46-billion haul translates to 438 projects, the bulk of which can be credited to new pledges of economic zone development.
“We’re being aggressive in our promotion and marketing of economic zones. We’re telling everyone that there should be no idle lands,” Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza told reporters on Monday.
Three quarters of the pledges, or P151.8 billion, were from economic zone developers, followed by manufacturing activity (P 45.09 billion) and information technology and business-process management (P11.39 billion).
Jobs accompanying these pledges rose from 606,567 jobs in the nine-month period in 2016, to 655,635 jobs this year. This is an increase of 8.08 percent.
Exports growth of Peza locators, meanwhile, showed an almost flat growth of 1.45 percent $6.162 billion from January to September 2016, to $6.251 billion this year.
