PEZA approves P6.4M investments in January

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority has approved investments worth P6.4 billion in January, despite the transfer of some business process outsourcing (BPO) locators to the Board of Investments which has no limit on locations, an official said Thursday.

PEZA Deputy Director General Vivian Santos said the agency was opening the zones for new types of investments and eyeing expansions to the countryside.

The 19 new approved investments include the development of IT center, ecozone export enterprises, domestic firms, recycling facility as well as expansion of existing firms, among others, Santos said.

“This is just the first month of the year and we are confident that we will be able to reach our 10 percent increase in investment compared to the P140 billion we gathered last year,” she said.

“This early, it’s already 83.5-percent increase compared to the same period last year,” she added.

Some BPOs opted to transfer to the BOI from PEZA in order to pursue remote work while keeping their incentives. The BOI does not require firms to conduct activities within ecozones unlike PEZA.

On the resolution to see Presidential declaration for March 3 as a special non-working holiday in Davao City in celebration of Araw ng Davao:

“Sa pagka-karon wala pa ko update if nagissue na si President Bongbong Marcos ug proclamation. Ang agency na constantly ga-follow up ana would probably be our City Tourism Office. Hopefully, the proclamation is already on its way... For me making March 3 as holiday is good so that we’ll have a long weekend. March 1 will still be the founding anniversary and having the holiday on a different date is perfectly fine.”