PEZA eyes P300-B investments in 2026

THE PHILIPPINE Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is hoping to breach the P300-billion level in investment approvals in 2026 amid a strong pipeline.

“From its early years to its peak of P319 billion in approved investments in 2011, PEZA has demonstrated strength, adaptability, and resilience amid global disruptions and economic headwinds,” said PEZA Director-General Tereso O. Panga at the agency’s 30^th anniversary event on Monday.

“It is our aspiration that, if not this year, we will breach the P300-billion mark by 2026 — bringing us back to the heydays of PEZA when we were approving an average of P290 billion in annual investments during the 2011 to 2015 period,” he added.

Mr. Panga said he is anticipating the entry of a big-ticket investment worth over P1 billion from a US company.

“We are traveling to the US to meet with another big-ticket investor as early as January to discuss their investment to start the year with a bang,” he added.

Under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. the agency has approved 124 big-ticket projects worth P581 billion. These projects are expected to generate $7 billion in exports and create 60,923 jobs.

This includes the $1-billion investment of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, which is the first highly desirable project under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy Act.

“Approved by the President during his recent visit to South Korea, it provided the much-needed impetus for new big-ticket and strategic investments,” Mr. Panga said.

The goal now is to sustain the upward trajectory of the investment approvals within economic zones (ecozones), he added.

“PEZA has not only recovered from the downward spiral in ecozone investments recorded from 2016 to 2021 but has also achieved its highest investment approvals in the past seven years,” he said.

“Since 2022, PEZA’s approved annual investments have been consistently growing — peaking at P214.18 billion in 2024. This strong performance has also enabled our self-sustaining agency to remit its highest dividends to the national coffers, having entered the prestigious government-owned and -controlled corporation billionaires’ club starting in 2023,” Mr. Panga added.

Meanwhile, the agency is close to achieving its target of P250-billion investment approvals for the year after its Dec. 12 board meeting.

“We are now at P238 billion. That means we are P12 billion short to hit our P250-billion target… but we are getting some applications still, and they all want to be approved on Dec. 22,” he added.

The PEZA Board is set to hold another meeting next week to deliberate on at least four projects.

“We will know by Dec. 22 when we will be holding our last board meeting for the year,” he said. “We are looking at a minimum of four projects; some are developers.”

“Most of these are in manufacturing, and some of these are coming in new… There’s one American, and some are Japanese. But I cannot name them yet unless they actually file their application,” he added.

The pipeline of investments includes a project by an ultra-luxury tourism brand that is estimated to be worth around a billion pesos.

Since its creation in 1995, PEZA has generated over P4.5 trillion in investments, 1.81 million jobs, and $1.12 trillion in exports. — Justine Irish D. Tabile