The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) is calling on President Duterte to approve the proclamation papers of 71 economic zones pending before his office that would result in over P76 billion worth of investments.
In a virtual news briefing on Tuesday, Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza said her agency wrote a letter to the President asking him to proclaim all 71 economic zone applications awaiting his signature. Peza data showed that once approved, these economic zones would translate to P76.13 billion in committed investments.
Broken down, majority of these economic zones are engaged in manufacturing, agro-industrial and information-technology centers and parks in the provinces.
Likewise, the Peza relayed a separate letter to the President requesting for the immediate lifting of Administrative Order 18. The AO, issued last year, implemented a moratorium for the application, processing and approval of new economic zones in Metro Manila to compel investors to locate in the countryside.
Plaza said it is crucial now more than ever to lift AO 18 and allow the putting up of new economic zones in the Philippine capital given the limited office space available.
Citing data from Leechiu Property Consultants, Plaza said there are only 34,000 square meters of office spaces available in Metro Manila at the moment. She argued this will not be sufficient enough to accommodate new and expansion projects of IT investors this year, especially when they try to recover next year.
“We wrote two separate letters to the President: one for the moratorium on ecozones here in Metro Manila, the other for the proclamation of new parks,” Plaza explained.
“In those letters, we said we need to lift AO 18 while we are still improving the countryside, especially the infrastructure there. We cannot convince these IT firms to go to the countryside unless it is already fully developed,” she added.
According to Plaza, there has been no response yet from the President’s office with regard to their two requests, but she is hoping Duterte would listen to the plea of the investors given the uncertainty surrounding the economy.
“We were outsmarted by Covid-19. With the pandemic in hand, we just have to do our best to keep out investors, to let our present investors survive and expand,” Plaza said.