THE PHILIPPINE Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said it hopes to obtain proclamations for 11 more economic zones (ecozones) this year following two proclamations in April.
On the sidelines of the Eco-Industrial Parks and Green Technologies forum Monday, PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga said that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is set to inaugurate the MetroCas Industrial Estates-Special Eco-nomic Zone in Cavite this week.
“We had two for this month. We had MetroCas, (which is) a manufacturing economic zone in Tanza, Cavite. The other one is ArcoVia City, an IT park in Pasig,” Mr. Panga said.
“But there are 11 more economic zones that we are eyeing to be proclaimed by the President. In fact, from what we gathered, the President would want to proclaim economic zones at his State of the Nation Address,” he add-ed.
PEZA is also looking at the release of guidelines this year for water and power to make ecozones more compliant with environmental standards.
“We already have consultants for this. We have met with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the International Finance Corp. All these are on the calendar,” he said.
The guidelines are also meant to make ecozones more competitive when it comes to energy and water efficiencies.
“This is the ecozone model now because the locator companies that we’ve been hosting are now demanding that they see all these elements in the ecozones: embedded power, access to clean and green production, and re-newable energy,” he said.
“So, without these facilities inside the ecozones, we can no longer be competitive because we’re up against other ecozones in ASEAN that are also aided by the different donors pushing for a clean and green pro-duction agenda. So it’s now a must,” he added.
Mr. Panga said that PEZA’s priority is to roll out the new guidelines, which will initially apply to prospective locators.
“But the idea is to make it applicable to all, given a certain window for them to catch up with these standards,” he added. — Justine Irish P. Tabile