The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) maintained optimism on Taiwanese investors setting up new projects as the nation continues to be a prime investor in local ecozones.

For this year alone, PEZA approved a total of P634 million in Taiwanese equity investments for January to September 2024, which is two times bigger than their investments approved for the same period last year, PEZA director-general Tereso Panga told the DAILY TRIBUNE.

“We hope to register more Taiwanese companies with the upcoming investment mission to Taiwan this last week of October. Taiwan remains our country’s strategic source of high-tech industry investments and electronics technology,” he said.

Taiwan projects mostly involve manufacturing computers, electronic and optical products, electrical equipment and fabricated metal products, rubber and plastic products.

Aside from this, Panga said they are also expecting Taiwanese equity investments to breach their 2021 investment level at P892 million, highest in the last three years.

P6.2-B annual investment

“In 2020, Taiwanese investments recorded the highest annual project capital investment of P6.2 billion. They are the 8th biggest investor in PEZA. Given our proximity to Taiwan, the GSP+ (Generalized System of Preference Plus) privileges for Philippine exports to the European Union, the huge pool of young, English proficient, highly trainable, and work quality-oriented workforce, and the growing domestic market — we remain to be a viable off-shoring site, especially for Taiwanese manufacturers,” the PEZA chief explained.

 The latest addition to Taiwanese locators in the ecozone was Aromate, a company that manufactures car air fresheners and home fragrance products which opened its first manufacturing plant in Light Industry and Science Park (LISP) III in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, and manufacturer of communication equipment EZconn Technology Corporation, which signed a Registration Agreement with PEZA.

Aromate gears to increase its workforce following the opening of its plant, with an initial investment of P12.1 million.

Taiwan projects mostly involve manufacturing computers, electronic and optical products, electrical equipment and fabricated metal products, rubber and plastic products.

PEZA said the Aromate facility has a building floor area of 2,340 square meters.

On the other hand, EZconn specializes in manufacturing high-precision optical fiber communication components, cables, connectors and related products for export to the US, Indonesia and Europe.

With an estimated project cost of P70 million and over 50 initial direct jobs, EZconn is set to begin operations at the Lima Technology Center — Special Economic Zone in Lipa City, Batangas by January-March 2025.

As of September, PEZA hosts 113 registered enterprises with Taiwanese equity, a P33.475-billion generated investments, $1.11 billion in exports, and more than 31,000 direct jobs.