Export companies in economic zones that are part of global value chains may have lost a staggering P100 billion the past three months due to the economic dislocation brought about by the of the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Charito Plaza, director-general of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said in a forum the projected global decline in production, labor, export and import transactions of PEZA companies is estimated at $700 million or about P34 billion a month.
Plaza reported that as of the second quarter of the year, 64.58 percent or 1,701 out of the 2,634 enterprises in PEZA are operating, while 44 percent or 661,245 out of the 1.5 million workers are back to work.
Of the companies that have are open, only 55 companies are in full operation.
At this level of operations, export firms are hard pressed at servicing the requirements of its global clients.
Plaza said PEZA will pursue its business continuity plans and attract more investments to recover the losses as soon as possible.
She said PEZA continues to push ecozone development as a key strategy especially in the countryside to host export companies in manufacturing, processing, refinery, assbmnly, information technology and business process outsourcing and digital economy, tourism, medical tourism, agro industrial, agro forestry, mineral processing, medical tourism , halal hubs and production zones.
To support these , Plaza said PEZA is luring investments in logistics transportation hubs and food terminals as well as utilities and facilities.
In the global front, Plaza said PEZA will help strengthen the preferential trade privileges of Philippine exporters to the European Union and the United States under the Generalized System of Preferences as well as to Asean countries.
In 2019, 58 percent of Philippine exports came from PEZA companies.
The combined export revenues of the export and IT enterprises in 2019 stood at $54.597 billion or 15 percent of the country’s GDP that year.