Tereso O. Panga, the newly appointed Director General of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), has outlined six priorities he committed the agency will pursue to promote more export-oriented investments in the economic zones.
In his first State of the PEZA Address (SOPA) to its employees at the PEZA Head Office on Wednesday, April 5, Panga said foremost in the six priorities is to accelerate the ecozone transformation roadmap by creating new types of special economic zones registrable under PEZA.
The new modes of ecozones will incorporate townships, such as the AgroForestry Ecozone; Aquamarine Park; Defense Industrial Complex; Halal Hubs, Knowledge, Innovation Science and Technology (KIST), Renewable Energy Ecozone, and Pharma Park, among others.
Second is to leverage its leading export sectors such as business process outsourcing (BPO), semiconductor and electronics, and health services.
“PEZA will be aggressive in attracting investors that will bolster science-based industries link to the Global Value Chain. This will ensure that the Philippines remains at the forefront of being a relevant investment destination,” said Panga.
Panga has also committed as third priority efforts to attract and target high-tech industries that will provide for ecozone product sophistication, export diversification, labor-intensive and high-skilled jobs, knowledge transfer, enhanced local supply chain, and creation of industry clusters.
Its fourth priority is to work on the approval of more ecozones this year as part of the Philippine Development Plan. As of the first quarter this year, the PEZA Board has approved 29 new ecozones already.
Fifth, he said, PEZA aims to surpass our last year’s investment achievement of P140.7 billion. The goals are to achieve a 10 percent target growth this 2023, including nine percent growth target for exports and eight percent growth for jobs.
Lastly, the new PEZA DG vowed to improve its regulatory framework by removing unnecessary and outdated requirements for ease of doing business for the agency to stay at the leading edge of competition.
“PEZA is adapting various interventions to enhance the ease of doing business and lower the cost of doing business within the PEZA ecozones pursuant to digitization initiative of the government,” he said.
Furthermore, Panga encouraged PEZA employees to embrace a culture of service built on integrity. “I demand integrity. Imbibing this to our core with no red tape, only red-carpet treatment to our stakeholders, and sustaining our brand of service, we can achieve new heights in our performance.”
He promised that PEZA will continue look after the welfare of everyone in the organization including beefing up the manpower complement and enhancing job productivity and career growth through proper human resources interventions.
He, however, warned against engaging in corruption, as any whiff of this will in turn merit disciplinary measures which include dismissal from the service.
With this, the new Director General has sought PEZA management committee's approval for the inclusion of new core values in the Agency: Transformational leadership and social responsibility stating the same are needed especially since PEZA is promoting sustainable ecozone development.
“With PEZAns being innovative in shaping future success of the organization and the ecozones, it is in the same manner that when the agency invites investors to locate, they must also be good corporate citizens. We cannot preach what we cannot practice,” Panga concluded his speech during the assembly.