THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) has reported an increase of 8.52 percent in approved investments for the first half of 2021.
Peza Director General Charito Plaza said total economic zone investments approved in the first six months of the year amounted to P32.057 billion, which is 8.52 percent higher than last year’s approved investments worth P29.541 billion.
These investments came from 119 new and expansion projects, up by 5.31 percent compared to 113 projects in 2020.
Meanwhile, the actual exports from January to May amounted to US$24.781 billion which generated 1,604,877 jobs. Peza said this reflects a 23.35 percent growth in exports and 8.58 percent increase in employment.
Majority of the investments came from various places such as Japan, South Korea, India, Hong Kong and China. Western countries also include Germany, Austria, France, Canada and the United States of America.
Calabarzon obtained P10 billion of these investments, followed by Central Visayas, Davao Region and the National Capital Region.
For the month of June, the Peza board approved 62 new projects, of which 22 were information technology enterprises, 20 were export manufacturing enterprises, 13 were facilities and seven were ecozone development projects. (JOB)