CEZA revenues jump 212% in 9 months to billion

Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) reported a record high revenue growth of 212 percent in the first nine months of the year on the back of robust collections from offshore virtual currency exchange (OVCE) and blockchain firms and their local business processing outsourcing (BPO) subsidiaries.

Administrator and Chief Executive Officer Sec. Raul L. Lambino said that compared to last year’s three quarters total tally of 1166,339,889.03, CEZA registered 1518,296,127.70 for the same period this yea , the bulk coming from 17 Fintech firms registered in the economic zone.

OVCE principal licensees paid application and license fees amounting to 1371,949,735.32 at the end of September this year, Lambino said while painting a rosy outlook for the future.

“We expect to earn more in the coming months once these OVCEs start to trade cryptocurrencies or conduct primary placement of coins or exchange” Lambino said.

The economic zone’s other sources of revenues in Sta. Ana, Cagayan for the third quaerter also showed hefty increases over the same period last year, Lambino said.

However, interactive gaming operations slowed down at 1127,315,981.27 in licensing fees compared to 1150,833,547.80 last year because of CEZA’s new thrust to limit the online gaming operations inside the zone.

On the other hand, seaport operations at Port Irene earned 15,786,957 compared to 1 1,068,116 in 2017, and garbage fees rose to 1296,400 from 132,550, servicing some 95 business locators.

Cryptocurrency exchange is not done in the country but offshore firms have flocked to CEZA for their operation, seeing the economic zone “as a safe haven” even if existing laws do not allow the use of digital assets for payment, Lambino said.