By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Senior Reporter
INVESTMENT APPROVALS by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) slumped by 40% to P11.21 billion in July, it said on Friday.
In a statement, PEZA said its approved 17 new and expansion projects equivalent to P11.21 billion, a 39.71% drop from the P18.6 billlion approved in the same month last year.
The projects are expected to generate $2.54 billion in exports, a 241.12% increase from the $744 million recorded last year.
The approved investments are seen to generate 2,907 jobs, it said.
“Despite the economic headwinds both locally and abroad, today’s investments are increasingly moving back toward more export-intensive and higher-value operations,” PEZA Director-General Tereso O. Panga said.
By industry, July approvals include six export manufacturing projects, four information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) enterprises, three domestic market enterprises, two ecozone development projects, and two facilities projects.
Eleven of the projects are in Region IV-A (CALABARZON), four in the National Capital Region, one in Region VII (Central Visayas), and one in Region XI (Davao Region).
The July approvals included four big-ticket projects worth P8.82 billion, which accounted for nearly 79% of approved investments for the month. These include two manufacturing projects in Batangas, an export enterprise in Davao del Norte, and an ecozone project in Cavite.
The top sources of investments in July were the Netherlands, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the United States, PEZA said.
In the first seven months of the year, PEZA approved 174 new and expansion projects valued at P151.9 billion, up 66.99% from the P90.96-billion approved in the same period in 2025.
Approvals in the seven-month period accounted for half or 50.3% of PEZA’s P300-billion target for 2026.
The investments are expected to generate $5.91 billion in exports, a significant increase from the $2.003-billion export value recorded last year. These projects are expected to generate 26,047 jobs, PEZA said.
About 76 of the approved projects were in manufacturing, 28 in IT-BPM, 26 in ecozone development, while the other projects were in industries like facilities (15), logistics (13), domestic market (10), tourism (four), and utilities (two).
By location, 141 projects will be in Luzon, 22 in the Visayas, and 11 in Mindanao.
The top investment source for the period was the Netherlands, followed by South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, and Germany.
PEZA said it is bullish on its investment prospects in the second half as companies seek to diversify their operations and boost supply chain resiliency amid geopolitical uncertainties.
