MANILA – The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) aims to attract more Singaporean investors, given the country’s generous incentives and lower industrial power rates in some of its zones.
It was reported in a news release on Sunday that Director General Tereso Panga highlighted the government’s fiscal incentive regime, which is already the most competitive among its Southeast Asian neighbors, during the recent 4th Philippines-Singapore Business and Investment Summit (PSBIS) panel in Singapore.
He provided a snapshot of a more generous incentive package that may be granted to big-ticket investments under the CREATE MORE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy) bill.
To attract energy-intensive investments, Panga highlighted industrial power rates in some of its zones that are notably lower than the average cost of power in the country and can even approximate the subsidized power rates of ASEAN competitor economies.
Energy-intensive investments such as those in the semiconductor and electric vehicle manufacturing industry are seen as the most promising and high-impact sectors, particularly in ASEAN.
“We are aware of the requirements of these strategic investments and I say that our ecozone model is ready to address its most pressing need to have access to clean, stable, and cost-competitive energy sources,” Panga said.
He cited several notable companies headquartered in Singapore that have been operating inside PEZA zone and are continuously expanding, such as Dyson, Amkor, New Kinpo, HRD/Ichi-jo group and Knowles Electronic.
To date, PEZA is home to 160 companies with Singaporean equity that have generated USD2 billion US dollars in investments and 127,000 direct jobs for Filipinos.
At the sidelines of PSBIS, Panga met with the officials of Hi-P Singapore and ST Engineering as part of PEZA’s targeted and aggressive approach to investment promotion, and its routine investor servicing and facilitation effort.
Represented by its vice president of Overseas Business Unit Kee Kum Cheong and Business Development senior director Derek Khoo, Hi-P provided Panga with plans for its Philippine operations and the bright prospects of re-expansion coinciding with the growth of its primary customer in Dyson, which is also operating as a PEZA registered business enterprise (RBE) in the First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP).
Being an existing PEZA RBE, Hi-P currently operates manufacturing facilities in FPIP-Special Economic Zone in Santo Tomas, Batangas.
Founded in 1980, Hi-P provides advanced manufacturing and production, and assembly, testing, and packaging services to a multinational customer base, including consumer goods and electronics, e-commerce, and electric automotive companies such as Amazon, Colgate-Palmolive, Dyson, Keurig Dr Pepper, Logitech, Meta, Motorola Solutions, Procter & Gamble, Seagate, and Tesla.
On the other hand, ST Engineering is one of the largest Singaporean multinational technology and engineering groups in the aerospace, smart city, defense and public security sectors.
Following Panga’s pitch, ST Engineering senior vice president for strategic planning and business development Geok Wan Loke said “PEZA’s value proposition definitely ticks the right boxes for investors to consider the Philippines as an investment destination.”
PEZA and Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Singapore (PTIC-Singapore) both committed to continuing their push for ST Engineering to set up manufacturing capabilities in the Philippines by providing additional details regarding the country’s generous incentive package outlined in the CREATE MORE bill, which is now up for President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s signature.
As part of PEZA’s recent efforts to provide a better ecosystem for foreign direct investments in the pharmaceutical industry and to provide a stronger link between Philippine industry and academe, PEZA also met with the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore.
Represented by Dr. Benjamin Toh of its Biomedical Research Council, A*STAR provided PEZA with an overview of the operations of Biopolis, a landmark hub for biomedical sciences research in Singapore.
“We look up to Singapore as a model economy and big brother in ASEAN whose learnings will help propel our country’s economic prosperity and contribute to our President’s bid to graduate to an upper middle-income economy,” Panga said.
“These are the practical learnings that we need to craft better and more responsive policies that will advance our pharma ecozone and knowledge, innovation, science, and technology parks.”
The PSBIS is a high-level forum organized by the Philippine Embassy in Singapore, headed by Ambassador Medardo Macaraig, and the PTIC-Singapore under lawyer Carla Grepo, in partnership with BDO Unibank and Aboitiz InfraCapital.
The 4th PSBIS concluded on Sept. 19.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, who led the Philippine government delegation, delivered the keynote address. (PNA)