PEZA reviews policies to keep up with tighter competition

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) plans to review and improve existing policies and processes as it anticipates tighter competition from other countries in the hunt for more foreign direct investments.

Although PEZA services are currently regarded one of the best worldwide, PEZA director general Lilia de Lima said other countries are slowly catching up.

“We have to continuously improve and improve especially in the light of the ASEAN integration. If we do not improve our services and be competitive we might lose out in the ball game. So we will have to review our policies because we do not want to be left behind. We have to continuously be marching with all the others especially in the region,” De Lima said in an interview.

“Note that all the other countries are also catching up so they may possibly improve on what we’re doing. So we cannot rest on the present things we’re doing. In 1995 when I came in, we made an overhaul to many things. I feel after so many years, we need to again overhaul, see what we can do to further improve our systems and our procedures,” she added.

De Lima said among the reforms they are eyeing include further reducing the period of securing a building and occupancy permit from 15 days to three days.

On Tuesday, PEZA signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Dangerous Drugs Board and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to help in the facilitation of certain regulated substances commonly used by ecozone locators.

De Lima said PEZA has inked MOAs with most government agencies that cover regulations on companies inside the economic zones.

Among these agencies are the Bureau of Customs, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Food and Drug Administration, Bureau of Immigration, Philippine National Police and the Optical Media Board.

“We have signed these MOAs so we can truly say that we are a one-stop shop and that we make ease of doing business a reality. We want to make it easier for locators,” De Lima said.

An IFC-World Bank study has cited PEZA as having the best practices among economic zones worldwide.

This is supported by foreign chambers which have continuously lauded the agency’s performance.

“Europe is looking at the Philippines with much interest from a point of view that China dream is basically over, the India dream never happened, Brazil is on trouble and Russia is Russia. The biggest asset the Philippines has is PEZA and if we can use PEZA as a hub, then growth will continue,” European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines vice president for external affairs Henry Schumacher said.

Investments approved by PEZA soared 19 percent in the first four months of the year to P48.76 billion from P41.09 billion recorded in the same period last year.

These investments came from a total of 208 projects, 11 percent more than the 187 projects approved by the agency as of end-April last year.