The Philippine Economic Zone Authority said it has posted roughly P140.9 billion in investment approvals for the last 11 months of the year, stating that they are confident to surpass its P154 billion full-year target.

In his presentation during PEZA's 28th Investors Night at The World Trade Center in Pasay City on Wednesday, graced by government officials and the ecozone's valued locators, PEZA director-general Tereso Panga said from January to November 2023, total investment approvals hit P140.884 billion.

This is 146.95 percent higher compared to the P57.49 billion they recorded in the same period last year.

Regarding actual exports, Panga said that as of September 2023, it stood at $47.791 billion, providing 1,780,604 direct jobs to Filipinos.

In terms of nationality, Japanese investors remain PEZA's number one locator with a 27.34 percent share, followed by Filipinos (23.19 percent); Americans (14.82 percent); Dutch (11.68 percent); British (6.84 percent); Singaporeans (4.09 percent); Koreans (3.3 percent); and other nationalities which comprise 8.32 percent of total investments.

Electronics and semiconductors (34.38 percent) remain the top sector for locator investments, trailed by IT services (12.45 percent) and metals/fabricated metal products (8.66 percent), operating in the 422 ecozones, home to more than 4,300 registered projects.

"We will surpass the target for the year with flying colors. We are positive that our country and our ecozones will prosper with the highest GDP forecast for the Philippines among ASEAN for 2023 to 2024," he said, quoting the outlook of ASEAN+3 Regional Economic Outlook for the Philippines GDP of 5.9 percent for 2023, and 6.5 for 2024.

PEZA's target for the year 2023 was P154.77 billion.