The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) reported yesterday a 294.26 percent increase in investment pledges to P58.95 billion for the first quarter of 2025, up from P14.95 billion in the corresponding period of 2024.
The first-quarter figure was equivalent to 24 percent of the agency’s P245 billion target for the full year.
“We are bullish that we will sustain this upward trajectory coming into the second quarter of the year,” Tereso Panga, director-general of PEZA, said in a statement.
Panga said PEZA will intensify its investment promotion initiatives through roadshows and missions here and abroad, highlighting the incentives available under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) Act.
Inbound delegations from the US, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Spain have expressed interest in investing in ecozone projects, he said.
“We are anticipating the influx of more investors looking into the Philippines for their offshore operations in Asia,” Panga said.
The first-quarter investment pledges were for 66 projects, and once operational, could generate 15,815 jobs and $497.46 million in annual exports, the PEZA said.
Of these prospective projects, 24 would go into manufacturing and another 24 would focus on information technology-business process management (IT-BPM); domestic enterprises and ecozone development had seven each and utilities and facilities, two each.
PEZA said 32 of the projects chose Region IV as project site.
In March alone, PEZA said it approved 27 new and expansion projects worth P6.014 billion, which represented a 110.66-percent increase from the P2.85 billion in the same period last year.
These projects are expected to generate $223.497 million in annual exports and directly employ more than 4,500 Filipino workers, PEZA said.
Of these projects, 12 are in IT-BPM, 10 in export manufacturing, two in utilities, two in ecozone development, and one, domestic enterprise. They will be housed across Metro Manila, Region III, IV, VII, and X.
PEZA said there are two big-ticket ventures with a combined total of P2.615 billion; one is set to create a water treatment facility in Batangas, and the other, a coconut milk production plant in Misamis Oriental. Peza did not provide further details.
