Newly-approved investments in economic zones declined 31.6 percent in May to P29.54 billion from P43.22 billion in the same month last year.
Philippine Economic Zone Authority director-general Charito Plaza in a virtual briefing cited the persistent fears of investors to move on with programmed expansion and even with new projects because of ambiguous laws on taxes and incentives.
“We want to avoid the closing down of companies in the country, or the reduction of their work forces which will lead to job loss for our people. We want to enhance our local manufacturing capabilities so that we will be able to complete our local supply chain amidst the pandemic and recovery from global crisis,” she said.
Among the investments approved by the PEZA board in May were 10 projects on export manufacturing, nine IT projects, two facilities providers, one logistics service provider and four economic zone developers.