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Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) director general CharitoB. Plaza announced plans to establishvarious economic zones across the country, including those for domestic small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to entice even more investments after PEZA registered a record number of new investments this year.

During a panel discussion at a Philippine investment forum held November 27, Plaza said, “PEZA has broken the record [with] an unprecedented increase in investment for this year… we grew by… 92.98%... because we expanded the creation of different types of economic zones. In every province and city there must be economic zone locations [to] attract all types of industries in the world to come over to the Philippines and invest.”

She said the government's independent foreign policy has led tonew investments from countries like China, Russia, and the Middle East. With the PEZA program of”making available different types of locations for different types of industries, weexpect…more investments in a few months.”

She continued that basic industries like the integrated steel, mineral processing, and crafts industries are invited to participate in their program, noting that the country has untapped land potentials and resources for development.

Plaza also revealed that PEZA is currently drafting a map identifying the different economic zone types and locationsto be founded. “We will soon be coming up with a Philippine economic zones map, and PEZA is now going around every province and city, helping them identify the potential economic zones that can be built in their municipalities,” she said.

With this, she added,”we hope that every investor who will come to the Philippines will simply have to choose which location they want to put in their industry because we will provide these different locations, different types of economic zones from Luzon, Visayas to Mindanao.”