A CEBUANO congressman fears the request by many local government units (LGUs) in the country for special economic zone accreditations would lead to stiffer competition and put off potential investors.
“There are too many applications for economic zone accreditations, even by some areas that are not yet ready,” said Rep. Ramon “Red” Durano VI (Cebu, fifth district). “Instead of luring locators to the economic zone, these areas may end up competing with each other,” he added.
In an interview with reporters, Durano, who is also the chairman of the House committee on economic affairs, admitted that there are “gray areas” in Republic Act 7916, also known as the Special Economic Zone Act of 1995, as it provides two ways to obtain economic zone accreditation.
One way is to seek accreditation from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) while the other is through legislation.
Durano said that at present, the economic-enterprise committee, which manages all economic zone applications, is “informally” adopting the criteria set by Peza in screening applicants.
17 bills
He said there are now 17 bills for legislated economic zones pending in the Lower House, including the recently endorsed House Bill 1319, the proposal for a province-wide economic zone in Cebu.
The bill, also known as the Cebu Economic Development Zone (CEDZ) bill, was filed by Cebuano Reps. Raul del Mar, Antonio Cuenco, Eduardo Gullas, Pablo Garcia, Benhur Salimbangon and Nerissa Soon-Ruiz.
Durano said a major issue related to the CEDZ proposal is the problem on monitoring the influx of goods and commodities into the proposed Cebu free port as this could worsen smuggling in the province.
“(But) I think there will not be any big problem because despite (Cebu becoming) a free port, there is only one major international airport and one major international seaport in (the province),” he said. He added that he is optimistic that LGUs will be able to monitor the port areas.
Flagship
Considered as the flagship project of Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), the CEDZ aims to make Cebu a “self-sustaining, industrial, commercial and investment center that will put in place a wide-reaching employment and investment generation mechanism.”
The CEDZ study group is expected to finish its second study on the economic zone project within the first quarter of this year.
Gerry Sta. Ana, who heads the CCCI committee on the Cebu economic zone proposal, earlier said the second study will be more detailed and will focus on “loose-ends” in the previous study. It will look into figures showing how the economic zone concept can propel Cebu’s economic growth and identify strategies to increase revenues of LGUs in the province. (MMM)
