BANKING on the vigorous push for investments and for industrial dispersion, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said it expects to “operationalize” around one to three new ecozones per year.
“Year on year, we actually expect to operationalize at least one to three new ecozones,”PEZA Deputy Director General (DDG) for Operations Vivian S. Santos said in a televised interview on Thursday.
Santos added that before ecozones get operationalized, they have to seek or be issued a proclamation by the Office of the President.
Last year, the PEZA official said the investment promotion agency has “29 pending ecozones” in the Office of the President for the issuance of a requisite proclamation as of 2022.
Of these 29 pending proclamations, Santos said 13 are IT parks and centers, 12 are in manufacturing, two are in Tourism.
In an earlier statement, PEZA said it has approved a total of 29 Ecozone development projects amounting to P96.21 billion, 11 of which were registered during the first six months of the Marcos administration and amounting to P90.65 billion or 94 percent of the total investments.
Meanwhile, Santos said PEZA is still receiving applications for the development of IT parks and centers. In fact, she noted that the agency expects more of this type and encourages their proponents to “disperse” these IT parks and centers to the countryside.
However, she added, PEZA will need the support of other agencies involved in the Ecozone program because it is “two different things to invite investors and then facilitate the requirements of the investors.”
Moving forward, Santos said PEZA will pursue “industry-led roadmaps, joint investment promotions and increased private sector participation in the infrastructure development of the ecozones via Joint Venture, [public-private partnership] PPP.”
According to data presented by PEZA Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Tereso O. Panga in a recent speaking engagement, the investment promotion agency has 420 ecozones nationwide.
Of these 420, there are 298 IT Parks and Centers; 78 Manufacturing; 24 Agro-Industrial Parks; 17 Tourism and 3 Medical Tourism.
Within these ecozones, PEZA said there are 4,346 locator companies nationwide.
As for regional breakdown of ecozones, 296 are located in Luzon, 83 are in Visayas, and 41 in Mindanao.
Last December 2022, PEZA said it is projecting 10 percent growth in investments in 2023.
Under the Philippine Development Plan 2023 to 2028, PEZA is tasked to expedite the implementation of the ecozone transformation roadmap which expands the different types of special economic zones registrable under PEZA.
According to the Plan,“the creation of ecozones will…maximize investments and promote industrial dispersion especially outside metropolitan areas. Further, the ecozones will be integrated into the local economy by relaxing the requirements, facilitating the free flow of parts, components, and other inputs, and increasing open trade between zone locators and firms outside the zones.”