The Philippine Economic Zone Authority asked economic zone developers to provide a complete package including designated areas for commercial and residential components.
Peza director-general Charito Plaza said the agency would carry out the new concept starting with the construction of new eco-industrial parks, smart and green ecozone townships and redevelopment of existing public ecozones with remaining idle lands.
“Integrated ecozones are already a requirement for applicants on ecozone development and existing ecozones will be transformed into this integrated ecozone concept towards building townships,” said Plaza.
Before the new concept of integrated development, Peza focused on developing sites solely as production areas or for plants and factories.
Plaza said the plan was to start with the four public ecozones in Rosario, Cavite; Baguio City; Mactan, Cebu; and Bataan. These areas are currently under review to find out if there is available land for commercial and residential spaces.
“These four Peza ecozones will now be redesigned and re-planned to comply with the new concept. Township is where locators and workers can work, live, learn and play hence, we encourage huge lands as economic zones and become future smart towns or digital cities, creating new metropolitan areas in every region,” Plaza said.
Peza is finalizing the Philippine Economic Zones Map to be launched during the Peza Investors’ Night on April 30, 2019 where inputs such as the integration concept will be included.
The map is a guide for the government to determine the suitable sites for the different types of economic zones.
Peza also plans to add two public economic zones per region or about 36 in the next five years.
Peza deputy director-general Tereso Panga said several multilateral agencies such as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the UN Development Program were doing their share to help Peza realize its vision for low-carbon, energy-efficient and sustainable ecozones that are comparable to those of advanced economies.