PEZA sees up to 80K new jobs this year

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) aggressively promotes new growth areas in different parts of the country as the agency builds momentum to hit P200 billion in investments this year.

PEZA Director General Tereso Panga said if the investment promotion agency (IPA) hits its investment target, it will create between 60,000 to 80,000 jobs this year within its ecozones across the country. PEZA added 35,871 jobs in ecozones nationwide from January to September this year.

“So, our ecozone development is pretty much scattered to rural areas and new growth areas, although most of it is still in Calabarzon —we have 11 projects there. But we can see that we have two in Cebu, there are also in NCR (National Capital Region), and we have [in] Pampanga in Central Luzon,” Panga said.

A recent addition to job generation is the 4,000 fresh positions to be opened from 16 newly approved projects on Sept. 23.

Panga remains optimistic that the IPA will hit its P200-billion investment approvals for 2024.

As of last month, PEZA approved P115.89 billion worth of projects.

These projects will boost Philippine exports by another $2.51 billion.

“Historically, we can expect a surge in investments Towards the end of the quarter. We’re still bullish that we’ll be able to achieve our P200-billion target for the year,” Panga said.