71 ecozones await approval

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The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has renewed its call to lift the moratorium on the establishment of economic zones in Metro Manila even as applications for 71 ecozones with investments of P76 billion are pending approval.

Charito Plaza, PEZA director-general, said she has sent two letters to President Duterte; one following up on the status of the 71 ecozones of which 18 are information technology (IT) parks in the national capital region.

Plaza’s other letter requests the President’s reconsideration to withdraw Administrative Order 18 implemented last year calling for the moratorium on the processing of applications for ecozones in Metro Manila to encourage countryside development.

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According to Plaza, Metro Manila can still accommodate more ecozones, particularly IT zones or parks which usually host information technology-business process outsourcing (BPO) companies.

Plaza said ecozones are confined to five business districts at present — Taguig, Makati, Quezon City, Pasig and Muntinlupa — when there are nine other cities that that can accommodate ecozones.

Manila for example has huge potential to accommodate IT zones due to the high concentration of young workers in the city.

Of the 71 pending applications, 53 are located in the provinces: 25 manufacturing, four agro-industrial, 23 IT parks/centers and one tourism zone.

The immediate lifting of the moratorium on declaration of IT parks/centers in Metro Manila will provide additional sites for new and existing IT investors.

Plaza said with only 34,000 square meters areas of available office spaces under PEZA, this will not be enough to accommodate the demands of new IT investors for this year and given the bullish forecast for recovery by the IT industry in 2021.

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