Investments approved by Philippine Economic Zone Authority likely grew by 2 percent to 7 percent in 2015, preliminary estimates by the agency show.
Peza spokesman Elmer San Pascual said the investment promotion agency attracted large manufacturing companies to set up operations in the Philippines last year.
“The growth in investments is more or less due to ongoing expansion programs of existing projects. But there are also big projects that partly contributed to the increase in investments,” he told reporters in an interview.
San Pascual did not provide exact figures on investment projects, as data collection remained to be completed. Peza approved P279 billion worth of investment projects in 2014.
He said despite the growth in investments in economic zones, exports by locators went down by 0.55 percent to $36 billion in the first 10 months of 2015.
“We are still reviewing data as of now. Investments are still on the positive side. We may come up with consolidated figures for the entire 2015 within the week,” San Pascual said.
He said 3,625 companies were currently operating inside government-owned economic zones.
Peza director general Lilia Delima said the agency remained optimistic about the performance of exports in 2015.
Exports by Peza locators were reported at $32.8 billion as of end-September 2015, down by 0.34 percent from $32.9 billion recorded in the same period in 2014.
Total employment in economic zones run by Peza reached 1.24 million as of end-October, up by 7.7 percent from a year ago, the agency said.
Peza said for 2016, it expected several investment missions by foreign companies, including those from the Nordic Business Council, composed of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Denmark alone is set to bring in three investment missions to the Philippines on agribusiness, power and health.
The Nordic Business Council of the Philippines earlier showed increased interest in the Philippines as an investment destination.
Ten Nordic companies are expected to visit the Philippines in February for possible partnership on energy efficiency, industrial parks and health sector.