The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Board has greenlighted 20 new and expansion projects in May worth P14.933 billion, keeping it on track with its conservative 10 percent growth target for the year. PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga reported that the investment pledges in May brought the agency’s first five-month project approvals to P48.027 billion, or 153.74 percent higher compared to the P18.928 billion in the same period in 2022. Among these 20 projects approved by the Board last May 26, Panga said that 11 are into export manufacturing, seven are IT, one ecozone facility, and one ecozone development. These projects will be located in Makati, Pasig, Taguig, Baguio, Pampanga, Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Cebu, Iloilo, and South Cotabato. The biggest project pre-qualified by the PEZA Board for approval by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB)  is engaged in the manufacturing of solar wafer cells with Maxeon 7 technology to be located in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, with investments worth P11.633 billion. PEZA did not reveal the corporate identity of this project. Moreover, the newly approved projects are expected to generate about $293.55 million in annual exports and create 4,480 direct jobs upon start of commercial operation. “We are continuously seeing an uptrend with our investment approvals as we enter the first half of the year, and we are more aggressive in our initiatives to help our investors make the Philippines their smart investment choice, taking the cue from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who has been most active in promoting the Philippines in his outbound missions,” said Panga. Adapting a whole-of-government approach, PEZA is constantly partnering with government agencies and various industry associations to address the pain points that hinder investors to unlock the untapped potentials of the Philippines. PEZA met with Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, Commission on Election (COMELEC) Chairman George Garcia, and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan to discuss the concerns of our investors and present our initiatives in support of the investment attraction and facilitation strategy of the government to bring in the much-needed FDIs to the country. PEZA also discussed with Senator Loren Legarda for creation of more ecozones in Antique and other provinces nationwide to spur countryside development. “We also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to ramp up digitalization in government to ensure fast and efficient delivery of services to the public and to carry out Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual's directive to adopt digital transformation to boost the country's competitiveness as investment destination particularly for high-tech and innovator accelerator companies,” explained Panga. To further these efforts, PEZA is also engaging with some of its growth champions in government, partner investment promotion agencies, and foreign chambers in strengthening the ecozone development program to be able to attract strategic and big-ticket investments in the country. PEZA continues to serve as a testament to government's successful investment and export-led growth strategy. Out of the total 3,431 registered business enterprises (excluding multi-sites), 98 percent are export-oriented; only two percent are domestic-oriented (into manufacturing). In terms of sales ratio, 94 percent are export sales while 6 percent are local sales. PEZA locators account for 82 percent of the country's total annual commodity exports and 60% of services exports.