F

PEZA Special Economic Zones

by Region

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is a

government agency tasked to promote investments,
acts
extend assistance, register, grant incentives to and in
facilitate the business operations of investors in export-
oriented manufacturing and service facilities inside
selected areas throughout the country proclaimed
by the President of the Philippines as PEZA Special
igures
Economic Zones. Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department
House of Representatives
August 2019 (No. 35)
Ecozones or “Special Economic Zones” refer to selected
areas with highly developed or which have the potential
to be developed into agri-industrial, industrial, tourist,
recreational, commercial, banking, investment and Following with the greatest number of ecozones are
financial centers whose boundaries are determined by Region IV (Tagalog Region) and Region VII (Central
Presidential Proclamation. Visayas) with 57 and 52, respectively. Region IV has
36 manufacturing ecozones (63.2% of its total operating
Operating Economic Zones. For the period 2010 to ecozones), and 14 IT parks/centers (24.6% of total).
2018, the total number of operating economic zones
has increased by 6.5% annually, from 239 in 2010 to In Region VII, IT parks/centers outnumber manufacturing
395 in 2018. ecozones. There are 39 IT parks/centers while there
are only 7 manufacturing ecozones.
Majority of the PEZA ecozones is composed of
Information Technology Parks/centers (IT) making On the other hand, Region II (Cagayan Valley), Region
up 66.2% of the total on average for the period. This IX (Zamboanga Peninsula) and Caraga had only one
is followed by Manufacturing (Mfg) at 22.0 %, Agri- ecozone each. Both Regions II and IX have agri-
Industrial (Agri-Ind) at 5.9%, Tourism (Tour) at 5.3%, industrial parks while Caraga has a manufacturing
and Medical Tourism Parks/Centers (Med. Tour) at ecozone.
0.6%.
Table 1 Figure 1
Operating Economic Zones Export Sales (in US$B)
As of December 2018 2010-2018
Agri- Tour Med.
Region Mfg IT 60 10.0
Ind Tour Total 9.0
NCR 6 168 5 1 180 8.0
50 7.1 7.1
CAR 1 3 1 5 5.66.0
I 1 3 1 5 40 4.1 4.0
II 1 1 2.7
30 2.0
III 12 9 21
-0.1 0.0
IV 36 14 3 4 57 20
-2.0
V 1 5 2 1 9
10
VI 1 20 1 2 24 -4.0
-5.0
VII 7 39 2 3 1 52 0 -6.0
VIII 1 2 2 5 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
IX 1 1
Export Sales (US$B) Growth Rate
X 4 2 3 1 10
XI 2 11 3 16 Source of basic data: PEZA
XII 1 1 6 8
XIII 1 1 Source of basic data: PEZA
Total 74 277 22 19 3 395
Source of basic data: PEZA
Export Sales. From 2010 to 2018, export sales were
In 2018, 180 ecozones or 45.6% of total operating generally
1,600,000 increasing – growing by 39.4 % from $40.516.0

ecozones are situated in NCR. Almost all ecozones in billion in 2010 to US$54.2 14.9
billion in 2018. Export sales
1,400,000 14.3 14.0
NCR are IT parks/centers (168 out of 180) (Table1). had an average annual growth of 3.7%. (Figure 1).
1,200,000 12.0
11.6
1,000,000 10.0
The highest growth rates were recorded during the
period 2016 to 2018 ranging from 5.6 % to 9.0%. In
2018, the highest export sales was recorded by Region
IV at $29.0 billion (53.5% of total) while the least was
recorded by Region I at $ 0.1 billion (0.02% of total).
In 2018 the bulk of approved investments went to NCR
at P55.8 billion which is equivalent to almost 71 percent
of total. This is followed by Regions IV at P43.2 billion
(or 30.8% of total) and Region III at P27.5 billion (or
19.6% of total) (Table 2).

Direct Employment. From 2010 to 2018, direct Figure 2

employment by ecozones grew by 106 percent from Number of Persons Employed
735,672 persons employed in 2010 to 1,508,727 2010-2018
persons employed in 2018 (Figure 2). However, annual 1,600,000 16.0
growth rates have been weakening from a high of 14.9
1,400,000 14.3 14.0
14.9% in 2013 to a low of 4.2% in 2017, settling at 6.4%
in 2018. 1,200,000
11.6
12.0

1,000,000 10.0
Most of those employed in PEZAs are in the National 8.5
800,000 8.1 7.6 8.0
Capital Region (37.14 % or 560,336 persons), Region
600,000 6.46.0
IV (34.42% or 519,246 persons), and Region VII
(14.18% or 213,866 persons). 400,000 4.2 4.0

200,000 2.0
Approved Investments by Region. Approved
- 0.0
investments in 2018 was P140.2 billion, lower by 31.4 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
percent from the 2010 investment level of P204.4 billion.
No. of Persons Employed Growth rate
In fact, approved investments in PEZA for 2018 was the
lowest during the past ten years. Source of basic data: PEZA

.
Table 2
Approved Investments by Region, 2010-2018
In Million Pesos
egion/
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Year
NCR 35,895.1 107,524.8 70,292.7 114,614.2 103,368.9 95,263.8 63,612.3 83,855.4 55,772.4
CAR 18,219.0 16,438.4 32,533.3 435.2 1,502.2 26,356.2 22,654.5 145.1 0.0
I 1,638.9 0.0 425.6 0.0 0.0 1,538.1 151.3 22,275.9 242.5
II 6,000.0 167.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
III 738.5 13,964.9 7,066.1 14,065.9 34,350.4 12,203.4 9,985.1 4,242.8 27,472.4
IV 116,158.9 115,370.4 123,028.7 84,006.8 106,746.4 111,597.6 81,969.5 71,009.9 43,248.9
V 1,125.0 940.3 263.8 1,132.6 692.4 1,448.2 64.6 482.0 821.6
VI 2,063.3 714.9 480.8 10,693.7 3,758.6 23,106.9 2,587.7 4,106.6 782.5
VII 8,427.3 16,203.7 50,668.1 25,365.4 10,803.3 8,710.8 26,908.0 20,177.8 5,989.2
VIII 2,836.0 463.6 1,226.4 13,433.8 263.8 119.2 22,4 0.0 1,201.5
IX 0.0 168.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 16.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
X 4,998.7 974.4 3,269.6 2,338.2 5,377.3 1,970.1 3,522.0 5,399.2 1,904.8
XI 631.1 1,633.8 4,659.9 7,592.6 10,098.3 3,803.8 2,175.0 7,988.6 761.9
XII 3,966.1 12,656.0 17,998.9 2,420.9 2,515.9 5,043.0 2,722.9 14,993.7 1,062.3
XIII 1,426.4 923.3 28.0 0.0 0.0 3,893.3 1,801.2 2,845.1 33.0
No Site
Yet 270.5 45.8 8.5 27.6 0.0 14.3 0.0 48.2 949.0
Several
Locations 0.0 150.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Total 204,394.6 288,339.8 311,950.4 276,126.9 279,477.3 295,085.3 218,173.6 237,570.3 140,242.1
Source of basic data: PEZA