THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has just concluded investment briefings for potential investors from Taiwan and China, pitching manufacturers on the advantages of locating in the Philippines.
PEZA Officer-in-Charge Tereso O. Panga said in a Facebook post late Wednesday that PEZA conducted an investment briefing for a Taiwan business delegation on March 6 and a separate investment promotion pitch on March 7 involving potential investors from Yiwu China Commodities City.
According to Mr. Panga, the Taiwan delegation consisted of eight manufacturing and two logistics companies seeking to register their export and domestic market projects with PEZA and the Board of Investments.
“The prospective Taiwanese investors manufacture consumer electronics, car brake pads, screws and other steel products, centrifugal fans, hardware materials, paper and packaging products,” Mr. Panga said.
Mr. Panga added that PEZA is currently working on firming up $65 million worth of Taiwan investment pledges in renewable energy and artificial intelligence, which were made during a trade mission last year.
Mr. Panga said PEZA also delivered an investment promotion pitch to investors from Yiwu China Commodities City, which is located in Zhejiang province.
“The economic cooperation with Yiwu will surely increase investment and trade for the country as we attract Yiwu small commodity manufacturers to set up their production facilities ideally in the ecozones,” Mr. Panga said.
“With more than 75,000 stores and small commodity producers of 2.1 million items in 26 large-scale business categories, the Yiwu market has trade relations with more than 210 countries and regions around the world,” he added.
“Under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) regime, PEZA may now register with incentives the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and manufacturing companies that will locate in the ecozones to cater to the domestic market. These ecozone manufactured products can be readily made available to the domestic market, which are expected to be cheaper, as compared to imported products, and thus, benefiting the Filipino consumers,” Mr. Panga said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave