The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has passed a resolution that authorizes the director-general (DG) to directly endorse to the Office of the President (OP) prequalified ecozone applications for presidential proclamation.
This developed as the agency reported it approved 17 ecozone development projects with a combined investment cost of P122 billion within just a year.
Tereso Panga, PEZA DG, in a statement said the uptick in ecozone development investment is crucial as it indicates a growing demand for proclaimed areas, which is further supported by the rise in new and expansion projects.
Panga said PEZA has issued Board Resolution No. 23-138 on June 23 allowing the DG to endorse ecozone applications thus streamlining the ecozone proclamation process, making it easier to do business within the ecozones.
The resolution said this in line with the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018
All other terms and conditions such as documentary submission shall remain in force and
The approval shall have a retroactive effect on ecozone applications previously granted pre-qualification clearance by the PEZA Board and are currently for endorsement to the OP or complying with the requirements for presidential proclamation.
Panga expressed optimism with the resolution, more economic zones could be established, especially in rural areas.
He said this will effectively make the Philippines ready to accept more investments from global market players, and ultimately, increase exports, create more job opportunities, and hasten countryside development for the foreseeable future.
The resolution will take effect immediately following its complete publication in a newspaper of general publication.
“As we are now beefing up our agency to continuously enhance our delivery of services and facilitate faster ecozone proclamations to provide ready-for-occupancy sites for our agile locators, it is high time for PEZA to amend its guidelines for a simplified application, proclamation, and registration process for new and expanding ecozone developer/operator projects,” Panga said in a statement.
PEZA said from July 2022 to June 2023, the PEZA Board has greenlighted 17 ecozone development projects with a total investment of P122 billion: seven are new and expansion manufacturing ecozones, eight IT Parks, 1 IT Center, and 1 new agro-industrial ecozone and will be located in Ilocos Region, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Western Visayas, SOCCSKARGEN, and National Capital Region (NCR).
Of the 17 projects, PEZA has pre-qualified eight big-ticket ecozone development projects amounting to P33 billion of investments for the first half of 2023, a 579 percent increase from P4.86 billion in the same period in 2022. These new and expansion ecozones will undergo FIRB approval for projects with minimum capital investment of P1 billion and presidential proclamation as required for the developers’ signing of registration agreement with PEZA.
Of these, 8 are new and expansion ecozone projects, three are manufacturing ecozones, one IT Center, and four IT Parks.
The largest investment among the projects is a manufacturing special economic zone (SEZ) which will be located in Medellin, Cebu to be known as North Cebu Economic Zone with a project cost of PhP 27.178 billion.
