The Philippine Economic Zone Authority said Thursday its board approved 33 projects with combined investments of P13.19 billion as of March 11 this year.
PEZA director-general Charito Plaza said the new projects would generate 2,447 new jobs for communities and residents in host areas in the preferred economic zones.
The agency did not provide year-on-year comparison data.
“The approval of new projects and investments is the agency’s positive action to continuously support the Philippine economy in our endeavor to maintain our competitiveness for investments despite the impact of COVID-19,” Plaza said.
She said of the approved projects, 29 would operate in Luzon and four in Visayas and Mindanao.
She said these included 11 export and 11 IT projects, four facilities and a logistics and utilities operation.
Nine new projects are classified as ecozone developer, or operator projects.
PEZA said about 2,560 companies, or 88 percent of PEZA locator population, were operating nationwide as of February 2021.
About 1,174,857 workers or 79 percent were working either in skeleton or work-from-home arrangements.
Investments generated by the agency slipped by 19.12 percent in 2020 to P95 billion from P117.5 billion in 2019 amid the challenges of the pandemic.
“We are doing our best to become part of the solution during these trying times. We will continue to turn the threats into opportunities and help the Philippines achieve its goal of becoming an investment haven in Asia and around the globe,” said Plaza.
Plaza said the agency was grateful for the continued trust and confidence of investors despite the difficulties the agency faced in 2020.
“We thank our locator companies for continuously trusting PEZA and for believing the potentials that the Philippines have despite the onslaught of this current pandemic crisis. PEZA indeed continues to implement its brand of excellence, one-stop-shop and continued operations albeit observing strict health and safety protocols for the safety of all,” she said.
