The Ortigas skyline seen from the junction in Pasig City. File / Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News
MANILA - The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) saw a 19-percent drop in last year's investments to P95 billion, equal to 326 projects, as investors shied away from commitments due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the overall decline, foreign investments rose 21.26 percent to P59.73 billion from 2019’s P49.26 billion, PEZA said Friday.
PEZA Director General Charito Plaza said they aim to bounce back to the P100-billion level through the rollout of programs to encourage investors to locate in the Philippines.
"Best aggressive PEZA target is to attain three digits, more than a hundred billion against last year’s P95 billion, but we don’t want to be promising high figures," Plaza said.
PEZA recently launched "Global Biz" to attract investors to the country.
Global Biz is a monthly forum for investors and other stakeholders to discuss business and investment opportunities in PEZA's ecozones.
The government is working aggressively to attract more investors to the Philippines and avoid divestments such as recent moves by Honda and Nissan.
The public and private sectors, and foreign investors are pushing for economic reforms through the passage of laws such as the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act to encourage more investments in the country.
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