The Philippine Economic Zone Authority said it approved P111.2 billion worth of investments from Jan 1. to Sept. 7, 2023, up by 180.6 percent from P39.71 billion in the same period in 2022.
“We are on track on not just realizing our target for the year, which is 10-percent increase in investments and where we expect also the Philippines to achieve a 6 percent to 7 percent GDP growth rate,” said PEZA director-general Tereso Panga.
PEZA said the PEZA target is aligned with the goals of other key industries such as the electronics and semiconductor sector, IT-business process management and real estate.
PEZA said investments in August reached P14 billion, up by 65 percent from P8.48 billion in the same month last year.
The investment promotion agency said most growth indicators are positive including investments, number of projects and additional jobs. Export sales, however, fell 2.12 percent to $63.99 billion from $65.37 billion.
Panga said fresh data indicate that exports from July to September would reflect positive growth.
PEZA exports accounted for 59.23 percent of the country’s total exports of $34.94 billion in the first half.
Japan led the list of countries with the highest investments, accounting for 27.334 percent, the US with 14.82 percent, the Netherlands with 11.68 percent and the UK with 6.84 percent. Local investors contributed 23.19 percent.
Semiconductor and electronics remain the top sector when it comes to investments followed by IT services and fabricated metal products.
“This year we see a strong potential in metals as well as transport because of the entry of investments into the EV [electric vehicle] sector,” Panga said.
Ecozone investments also benefited host local government units through taxes paid by the locators.
PEZA contributed 16.58 percent to the county’s gross domestic product, 56 percent to Philippines’ exports of commodities and goods and 51 percent to service exports in 2022.