PEZA aims drawing Singapore capital

To add more Singaporean investors into the country’s ecozones, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) director general Tereso Panga recently concluded a three-day visit to Singapore, where he served as a panelist in the 4th Philippines-Singapore Business and Investment Summit (PSBIS) and the PSBIS C-Suite Conversations and participated in several one-on-one meetings with key business personalities.

During the forum, Panga highlighted the government’s fiscal incentive regime, which is already the most competitive among its ASEAN neighbors and provided a snapshot of a more generous incentive package that may be granted to big-ticket investments under the CREATE MORE bill.

Immediately after the PSBIS plenary session, Panga also served as an expert panel in the PSBIS C-Suite Conversations, together with Philippine Chamber of Commerce Inc. (PCCI) president George Barcelon and Aboitiz InfraCapital VP for Sales and Leasing Monica Trajano and VP for Inventory Generation Jolan Formalejo.

The fireside chat was attended by key business leaders and government policymakers from both sides.

Energy-intensive projects

When asked how PEZA is planning to attract energy-intensive investments such as those in the semiconductor and EV manufacturing industry, which are seen as the most promising and high-impact sectors, particularly in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 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 its neighbors.

“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 also highlighted the several notable companies headquartered in Singapore that have been operating inside PEZA Zones 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 $2.0 billion in investments and 127,000 direct jobs for Filipinos.

The PSBIS is a high-level forum organized by the Philippine Embassy in Singapore headed by His Excellency Ambassador Medardo Macaraig and the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Singapore (PTIC-Singapore) under Atty. Carla Grepo, in partnership with BDO Unibank and Aboitiz InfraCapital.

At the sidelines of PSBIS, DG 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.

Founded in 1980, Hi-P, an existing PEZA-registered business enterprise (RBE) 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.

Meanwhile, PEZA also met with ST Engineering, one of the largest Singaporean multinational technology and engineering group in the aerospace, smart city, defense and public security sectors. Facilitated by PTIC-Singapore Commercial Counsellor Atty. Carla Grepo, the productive meeting provided ST Engineering with the investment opportunities available within PEZA zones.

Following Panga’s pitch, ST Engineering Senior Vice President for Strategic Planning and Business Development Geok Wan Loke remarked that “PEZA’s value proposition ticks the right boxes for investors to consider the Philippines as an investment destination.”

PEZA and 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 the President’s signature.