PEZA Gives Go Signal for 13 Projects Worth ₱9.6 Billion

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) board has authorized 13 projects with a combined capital investment of more than ₱9.6 billion

PEZA’s Officer-in-Chare and Deputy Director General for policy and planning, Tereso Panga has mentioned that the PEZA board has approved 11 ecozone locator projects worth ₱5.97 billion and two ecozone developer projects worth ₱2.63 billion.

Last week during the PEZA investors’ day, Panga also highlighted the need for amendments to the law which rationalizes requirements for proclamations on ecozones.

“We need to amend the PEZA Law. It’s a 27-year-old law,” mentioned Panga.

PEZA was established under The Special Economic Zone Act of 1995 or the Republic Act 7916.

Panga says that “We want the rationalization of our requirements for ecozone proclamation because it’s the only PEZA that goes through the presidential proclamation process,”

Other agencies like the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan or the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority can assign designated ecozone areas without the need for a presidential proclamation as said by Panga.

In this month, the PEZA reported that back in October, there were 13 ecozones that are pending proclamation by the administration. Ecozones have the potential to create an estimated ₱18 billion worth of investments.

From the 13 pending ecozones, the expansion of the Lima Technology Center in Batangas was already endorsed to the President’s office while the other 12 ecozones were already endorsed to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Panga likewise mentioned that the PEZA is already discussing with NEDA to reinstate the ecozone development strategy of the country in the Philippine Development Plan (PDP).

Source: Philstar