MANILA - The Board of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has approved 16 new and expansion projects worth P54 billion, PEZA Director-General Tereso Panga announced Thursday.

Panga said this was thrice the amount the agency approved last year, and would help the country boost export earnings. He said they expect the approved projects to boost employment.

“The projects are expected to generate 4,000 new jobs. But overall towards the end of the year we are expecting additional 60,000 to 80,000 new jobs for Filipinos," Panga said.

The new and expansion projects are in the sectors of export manufacturing,  IT-BPM, facilities, logistics, and ecozone development, he added. Many of the new projects are in areas outside traditional growth areas.

"So yung ecozone development are pretty much scattered to new growth areas, although karamihan ay nasa Calabarzon pa rin, meron tayong 11 projects, pero makikita natin na meron tayong 2 sa Cebu, meron din tayo sa Metro Manila at sa Pampanga sa Central Luzon,” he said.

From January to September this year, the PEZA Board has approved 179 new and expansion projects expected to generate an additional $2.5 billion in exports and generate over 30,000 new jobs.

Panga said they are bullish that PEZA will be able to achieve its 200 Billion Peso target for the year especially with an expected surge of investments in the last quarter of 2025.