“We are encouraging more investments coming from Japan especially this time when we, alongside President Bongbong Marcos Jr., are most aggressive in promoting the Philippines to international business community. The Japanese will always be ichi-ban in Peza and in the country,” said Panga.
Coming from the heels of a highly successful official visit by Marcos to Japan, the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Osaka, representative office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Western Japan, put together the three-day Osaka-led Business Partner City (BPC) mission for the joint official and business delegation, to hold the annual BPC Conference in the City of Manila, the first time in more than two years that this event is being held physically since the onset of the pandemic.
The delegation brought 15 Japanese companies planning to put up businesses in different sectors including manufacturing, food, agriculture, pharmaceutical, electronics, and machinery.
Presidential Special Envoy to Japan Dr. Reghis Romero II highlighted the efforts being done by the government to continue pitching in the country to Japanese investors.
“Our President is quite bullish in providing you the business climate and the easy way of doing business in the Philippines. Peza is part of the government industrial estate (sic) where your incentives — business incentives, tax incentives, and benefits are also consolidated into one to ease up permits and doing business in the Philippines,” said Romero.
Japanese investments in Peza
During the visit, Peza reported that to date, there are about 887 Japanese companies registered in Peza, which generated P745.637 billion investments, US$17.250 billion exports, and 350,710 direct jobs.
Some of the top companies in Peza include, among others, Taganito HPAL Nickel Corporation, Toshiba Information Equipment (Philippines) Inc., Ibiden Philippines Inc., Canon Business Machines (Philippines) Inc., and Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (Cebu) Inc.
Panga also said: “With the state visit of PBBM (Marcos) in Tokyo, we are expecting more Japanese business partners and companies to come and invest in the Philippines as part of their long-term business plan.”
“We have already received more inquiries from interested Japanese companies who will greatly add to the exports of the Philippines,” said the Peza OIC.
Future partnerships
Peza is also looking at strengthened collaborations with Osaka especially in engaging its more than 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which will encourage local SMEs to be integrated in the ecozone program.
“What we want is not just our ecozones to grow but including our SMEs that support the operations of our locator companies. Without which, we cannot provide a better ecosystem for our investors here in the Philippines,” said Panga.
PTIC Osaka Commercial Counsellor Michael Ignacio likewise said, “We are grateful for Peza for hosting our delegates and we are looking forward to organizing another mission, either inbound or outbound, to continue promoting the Philippines to our Japanese investors.”
For its part, the Osaka Business Partner City Council (OBPC), the lead of the delegation alongside PTIC Osaka, is positive that more partnerships will come out of the three-day inbound mission.
“I’m convinced that the roundtable and other events held together with the [forum] today will be of great significance in promoting economic exchange between Osaka and its Partner Cities in the future,” said OBPC Executive Director and Secretary General Makoto Yagi.
Bullish on the outcome of the mission, OIC Panga said, “We welcome you to explore various business and investment opportunities in the Philippines especially within the Peza ecozones.” (PR)