PEZA bats for more ecozones in Calabarzon

by Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star), 8 Aug 2021

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Economic Zone Authority is pushing for the development of more ecozones in CALABARZON (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) for priority industries including automotive, electronics, as well as information technology – business process management (IT-BPM).

In a statement, PEZA said it recently conducted a forum with local government units (LGUs) and other government agencies in Region IV-A with the aim of creating more ecozones in CALABARZON.

“Under the Transformation Road Map and in line with Administrative Order 18, we are actively involving various LGUs to locate and identify idle lands so we can transform these idle lands into ecozones, thus, attaining total development of the country through the acceleration of progress in our LGUs in every region,” PEZA director general Charito Plaza said.

AO 18 issued by the Office of the President in 2019, imposed a moratorium on processing and approval of new ecozones in Metro Manila to encourage development in the countryside.

“Despite the challenges we are all facing brought by the global pandemic and other natural calamities, together with PEZA, we remain optimistic as investments and industrialization opportunities continue to open [and prosper] in Batangas and in Region IV as a whole,” said Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas who also serves as chairman of the Regional Development Council (RDC) CALABARZON – Investment Promotion Group.

Cavite Economic Zone administrator Norma Tañag said PEZA’s priority industries in CALABARZON are aligned with RDC-CALABARZON and the Board of Investments.

“These are the automotive industry, electronic and semiconductors industry, IT-BPM, and metal-based manufacturing industry,” she said.

At present, she said there are 116 locators engaged in the manufacture of auto parts, with 69 in Laguna, 32 in Cavite, and 15 in Batangas.

CALABARZON also has 56 business process outsourcing companies with 29 in Laguna, 12 in Cavite, 10 in Batangas, four in Rizal, and one in Quezon.

As of March this year, a total of 61 economic zones located in CALABARZON are being managed by the PEZA and host 2,022 locator firms.

In terms of employment, Laguna had the highest number of employees at 200,009 last year, followed by Cavite with 164,588 employees.

Despite the Taal Volcano eruption and the pandemic, Batangas ended 2020 with a 1.37 percent year-on-year increase in employment to 133,815 employees.

Rizal registered a higher uptick of 9.45 percent in employment to 7,368 employees last year from 6,732 employees in 2019.

“This is a testament that our economic zone model is working. Our ecozones shall become our drivers to boost economic growth, gain multiplier effects, and increase employment for LGUs hosting ecozones,” Plaza said.