TOP, short for Philippine Economic Zone Authority, or PEZA, Director General Tereso O. Panga, who is at the helm of the country's economic zones, is determined to make PEZA the country's top promotion agency.

Panga, who was appointed by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. as the country's top investment salesman on 23 March 2023, believes that to propel PEZA, he must navigate through the issues and concerns affecting the agency.

With a career spanning 25 years in PEZA, Panga rose from the Division Chief of Policy Planning in 2000, zone manager of Lima Technology Center and other ecozones in Batangas in 2002 and administrator of Baguio City Economic Zone in 2004, as Cavite Economic Zone head in 2008 and Deputy Director General for Policy and Planning in 2010.

Panga, a Career Executive Service eligible since 2002, has among the many functions in PEZA, the manager for policy and planning, ecozone development, digital transformation, special projects and programs, management information systems, building and environmental code compliance, energy efficiency and other eco-industrial initiatives.

Panga obtained his diploma in Comparative Literature in 1991 and a master's in Industrial Relations in 2000 from the University of the Philippines — Diliman.

Confidence in achieving growth

The director general of PEZA stated that stars have aligned for PEZA this year, stating that he is confident that the conservative growth target of 10 percent or P154.7 billion investments will be attained this year given the positive outcome of the President's state visits abroad and the continuous follow-through.

"We have already achieved 85 percent of our target with the total approved investments of P131.756 billion from January to October. We in PEZA remain upbeat in the forecast for investments in our country," he said.

Panga said the agency maintains a loyal base of locators with some that have already expanded their investment projects this year.

"With the President actively promoting our country plus the aggressive 'whole of government approach' to acquire new investments and pledges being realized," he explained.

By 2024, Panga said PEZA plans to address the pain points of current locators such as high electricity costs and singular policy and consolidation for ease of doing business, deemed as foremost in creating a better and more attractive investment climate at par with the country's Southeast Asian neighbors.

"For investment acquisitions, we will be more aggressive in promoting in North America, the Middle East, and China. We are working towards hard investments that will see production facilities being established in the zones with their allied value chain partners included, thereby creating a seamless manufacturing zone. Likewise, we are looking forward to approving investments from unique industries and even welcoming newer and more expansion projects from our locators in the ecozones nationwide," he said.

Panga believes that ease of doing business has a direct correlation with efforts to attract and retain investors in the country.

"We are home to over 4,352 locators built up through the years. Our retention rate has been quite high and that speaks volumes. It means they like what we have done in PEZA in the last 28 years! When President Marcos Sr. established the first zone in Bataan as a business experiment, it became a model of success," Panga assessed.

P4.177-T projects thus far

"Now here we are 422 ecozones strong under PEZA, located throughout the Philippines. These do not even include zones controlled by other IPAs. The regulations that have been set in place, the incentives and the benefits packages have worked to attract P4.177 trillion for our nation."

He added, "And yet, as competition from other neighbors in the region becomes stronger, we address this by also evolving and adjusting our regulatory framework comparative to that of the offers of the competition. What investors want is policy consistency, forecast dependability, and professional leadership. These are but some of the measures of ease of doing business that we have been championing ever since."

Panga said the succeeding steps will be to foster and continue to implement a whole-of-government approach to address the key concerns that act as barriers to investments.

"With the President's full support for the ecozones by providing green lanes for strategic investments and in the continuous amendment of our laws, the best is yet to come for PEZA, the ecozone industry, and the country," he said.

Investor-friendly regulations

With PEZA's crucial role as an investment promotion agency, which accounts for the biggest share of foreign direct investments, or FDI, into export-oriented industries in the country, Panga said he knows too well the relative importance of ease of doing business measures in attracting FDI.

PEZA has made ease of doing business its mantra since day 1 of its creation in 1995 along with upholding integrity, providing utmost service, removing red tape while giving the red-carpet treatment for investors.

Hospitality, thus, has become the comparative advantage in promoting the Philippines to global investors.

As the Philippines is forecasted to be one of the best-performing economies in Asia within the next few years, PEZA aims to make a major contribution to the aspiration of attaining a higher income status for Filipinos.

"As we always say, we will continue to contribute to the attainment of this administration's overarching goal of making the Philippines a more inclusive economy with an upper middle-income status by 2028," Panga said.

Leaving a legacy

Asked about the legacy and lessons that he would want to impart, Panga said he aims to steer PEZA to greater heights of success and growth.

He would also want his colleagues in PEZA to step up to the challenge by not only being good at promoting investments but more importantly, facilitating investments.

"We need to be consistent in our quest to improve our individual and collective performances, following our agency's QMS Certification for the last 15 years," he said.

PEZA will embrace "innovation, digital transformation, and sustainability so we can further improve our ease of doing business and keep up with the demands of our investors. As our way forward, we are streamlining the various policy differences and addressing this to create a positive business climate that is competitive with those of our neighbors," Panga said.

He added that PEZA is streamlining operations by using key legislation to further cut through bureaucracy.

Recently, Albay Representative Joey Salceda announced that there is now a consensus in the executive branch to reinstate IPAs' authority to administer incentives and that Congress will immediately and positively address this to hasten the efforts of FDI acquisition.

"This Executive-Legislative cooperative effort further develops an even better climate of ease of doing business in the country. As we continue to improve the ease of doing business and reduce operational costs in the Philippines, our nation will become an even more competitive destination for FDI. Para sa Bagong Pilipinas, let us aspire to become a nation that actively promotes eco-zoning the Philippines towards inclusive and sustainable development," Panga's message to his fellow PEZAns went.