PAGLAGDA SA PH-FTA DEAL IKINATUWA NG PEZA

OPTIMISTIKO si Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Tereso Panga na makakatanggap ng maraming investors mula sa South Korea matapos lagdaan ang Philippine-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) sa sidelines ng 43rd Assosciation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit at Related Summits sa Jakarta, Indonesia.

“The signing of the FTA is a testament to the realization of many opportunities for complementation and collaboration between the Philippines and South Korea, and an even greater milestone for our economic friendship, ayon kay Pangulong Bongbong Marcos Jr.

“This FTA serves as a clear demonstration of the intent to elevate the current bilateral relations with South Korea to a stronger strategic partnership. The Philippines’ engagement with South Korea is built on trade through market access, economic cooperation, and investments through collaboration in targeted sectors such as critical minerals and supply chains,” sinabi naman ni Trade Secretary Alfredo.

 “With South Korea’s status as the 10th largest GDP in the world and 2nd most technologically advanced nation (next to Germany), the Philippines stands to benefit from this FTA which opens more opportunities for investors, increased market access, FDI inflows, higher value-added production and export diversification combined with deeper economic cooperation and innovation partnership,” wika naman ni Panga.

Nakikinita-kinita na rin ng PEZA ang pagbuhos ng FDIs galing sa South Korea para sa taon.

“We are seeing an increasing trend with more South Korean investments coming in the country. Last year, we have approved a total of Php 1.019 Billion investments from South Korean projects and for our performance this year, we already generated a total of Php 1.413 Billion investments from South Korea. We are looking forward to welcoming more investments from them, especially from industries unique to the country,” ayon kay Panga.

Noong Hunyo 2023, nakapagtala ang PEZA ng 246 registered projects mula sa South Korea na binubuo ng P92.190 bilyon na investments, $736.454 milyon na exports at 40,688 employments.

“We are on track to achieving our conservative target for the year. In fact, we have already achieved 72% of our P154.77 billion target investments for 2023,” ayon kay Panga.

“We are confident that we will exceed our conservative 10% growth this year given the increasing number of ecozone applications filed with our office as well as big ticket projects and long-term investments that we expect to register this last quarter of 2023,” dagdag pa nito.

Noong nakaraang Huwebes, inaprunahan ng PEZA Board ang 27 bago at expansion projects na inaasahang magdadala ng P14.044 billion investments, US$ 174.806 Million exports at 4,614 jobs.

Kabilang sa 27 projects na ito ay 11 sa pag-e-export, 5 sa pasilidad, 5 sa IT, 2 sa logistics, 2 sa domestic at 2 sa ecozone development. Matatagpuan ang mga proyektong ito sa Makati City,

City, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Cebu, Davao del Norte, and Occidental Mindoro.

Sa mga bagong proyektong ito, umabot sa P111.207 ang kabuang investments ng PEZA sa taong ito, na mas mataas ng 180.06% kung ikukumpara sa P39.632 billion investments na inaprubahan noong Jan-Sep 2022.

Ang top 5 FDIs para sa taong ito ay ang Japanese, Singaporean, Caymanian, British at South Korean.