PEZA-approved pledges drop to 69% in January
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) began 2022 with a 69% decrease in investment pledges, approving only P3.5 billion worth of pledges in January compared to P11.31 billion in the same period last year.
PEZA Director General Charito Plaza said that although this incident is unfortunate, they are expecting this decline as investors are still making adjustments to their operations for the new normal.
Total pledges in 2021 reached P69.3 billion, a 27% decline from 2020 when the Philippines experienced the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Plaza stated that “everyone is trying to survive and is learning how to live and work under this new normal.”
However, despite the downward trend, PEZA said that the investment commitments made last could create 217,700 new jobs for Filipinos over the next months.
Exports from economic zone (ecozone) locators also increased in 2021 by 14% to $63.06 billion due to them not stopping amid the pandemic.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez highlighted that the CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) Act will “bring in [a] massive inflow of investments that will create more jobs” in the country for the rest of the year.
