The director-general of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority the other day enumerated the advantages of investing in the country’s eco-zones where 30% of investors came from Japan.
PEZA head Charito Plaza made the presentation before key Japanese government officials and senior business executives at the Philippines-Japan Business Forum at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao on Friday, an ancillary event of Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit.
Of the 100 investors from both countries attending the forum, over 20 of which are from the Japanese delegation.
The PEZA head said that among the top economic zone investors, 30 percent are coming from Japan.
“So far, we have 901 Japanese companies in PEZA economic zones, Japanese support industries, shipbuilders and other related companies in PEZA,” said Plaza.
According to Plaza compared to other Asian countries, Philippines has less linguistic communication problems.
She also pointed out the ease to hire local staff such as tellers, clerks as well as the ability of the country to provide high quality of employees with highest retention rates.
“Meaning, Filipino employees and workers stay loyally to their employers,” she explained.
Comparatively, Philippines has the lowest account of labor stikes and blackouts, according to the PEZA head.
Plaza also laid down the reasons to invest in their agency.
“PEZA right now is the sole economic agency that is authorized to establish as many economic zones nationwide,” she stressed.
As of now, Plaza identified the highest pour in of investments in electronics and semi-conductors, followed by information technology.
“In PEZA, we have the worldwide five top semi-con and electronic sales leaders operating and registered with PEZA,” said Plaza.
The PEZA head said the agency has the best incentives so far with income tax holidays (ITH) valid for eight years for pioneer projects and four to six years for non-pioneer projects, special property tax for gross income, allowable deductions in lieu of national and local taxes, incentives like tax and duty free importation, capital equipment, spare parts supplies and raw materials, and domestic sales allowance of up to 30 percent of the total sales.
She also laid down some of the additional incentives granted by PEZA such as the employment of foreign nationals.
“Meaning you can bring your consultants or your top employees because we will be providing them a special visa to include the owner of the foreign investments and their immediate family members,” explained the PEZA head.
According to Plaza, investors could choose from the types of ecozones to be established nationwide depending on the potential of the provinces or cities identified.
PEZA is eyeing to establish the following ecozones: agro-industrial economic zones, agro-forestry economic zones, aquamarine economic zones, tourism ecozones, retirement homes and wellness centers, mineral processing economic zones, defense industrial complex (strategic location, ideal location as distribution hub of Asia and the world, renewable energy, agro-industrial parks, Halal hubs and production zones, free trade zones and international air, seaports and international distribution hubs on import and export, giving more logistics park and establish island cities and island economic zones.
The new and improved PEZA
The PEZA chief also identified the improvements in the agency, stressing that PEZA has been “revolutionized”.
Plaza stressed that under PEZA, the Philippines has shown dramatic improvements on overall investment climate in the country through its successful regulatory reforms.
“Meaning we have new thrusts and programs, where we are inviting our Japanese investors, and other foreign friends and investors and local entrepreneurs as PEZA will be creating economic zones in every provinces and cities nationwide,” she explained.
“We will see to it that there will be a complete supply chain by inviting a complimentary industries so that we can also minimize importation, we have to provide quality labor force by creating a PEZA institute to match and train manpower needs of our industries, create more logistics hubs and services by empowering international airport, seaports, and telecommunication services providers,” said Plaza.
“First, PEZA cares and empowers the Filipino people. PEZA also cares for and protects the environment, PEZA likewise takes care of its investment partners and stakeholders, that’s why we keep on regularly conducting a dialogue so we will know your problems, your issues and concerns that we have to address immediately,” Plaza emphasized.
PEZA is also a one-stop shop as it provides the building and occupancy permits, according to Plaza.
“We provide 24 hours-7 days service, no Red Tape but red carpet treatment and we are ISO 901-2008 certified which means for all processes for all levels in all offices nationwide,” said Plaza.
PEZA – attached to the Department of Trade and Industry – is the Philippine government agency tasked to promote investments, extend assistance, register, grant incentives to and facilitate the business operations of investors in export-oriented manufacturing and service facilities inside selected areas throughout the country proclaimed by the President of the Philippines as PEZA Special Economic Zones.
As of now, PEZA has recorded 358 operating economic zones nationwide, 73 of which are industrial and export processing zones, 243 are IT Parks and centers, 19 are tourism ecozones, two are medical tourism parks, and 21 are agro-industrial parks.
