PEZA plans reverse trade fair for locators

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) plans to increase the local sourcing of raw materials among industries located in its economic zones across the country.

PEZA director general Charito Plaza said the agency will hold this year a “reverse trade fair” to highlight the top imported raw materials of its locator industries.

Plaza said PEZA-registered locators currently import a lot of raw materials which are in fact available in the country simply because these industries “do not know that these are available locally and they don’t know where to get it.”

“With the reverse trade fair, we will display all the importations of our industries for local suppliers to know that these importations are actually available in the country,” she said.

“The goal of PEZA is to minimize the import dependence of our industries and to encourage new industries or complementary industries that will manufacture and process these available raw materials with us. So other than minimizing our import dependence, another goal is to help our local suppliers grow. If they become suppliers of our existing industries that would be better as it would also encourage productivity of communities,” Plaza said.