Philippine Economic Zone Authority Director-General Charito Plaza
Doha: Foreign investors from Qatar who are planning to expand to the Philippines, will soon be able to visit the country, notwithstading the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and with major local banks ready to provide institutional finance. This was revealed during the launch of the monthly “Global Biz with PEZA”, a forum that highlights investment opportunities in the Philippines, which was held as part of the 26th anniversary celebration of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), recently.
During the event, which was streamed live online, PEZA Director-General Charito Plaza responded to the issues raised by Doha-based PEZA Investments Promotions Partner Joseph Timothy Rivera regarding Middle East investors, particularly those from Qatar, who now wish to resume business travels to the Philippines.
Plaza announced that they are now just waiting for the relevant directives of the Philippines’ Inter Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) on the vaccine status for the business sector. She added that PEZA has made representations to both the IATF & the Department of Health (DOH) for the priority vaccinations to ecozone locators as well as both existing and new investors.
PEZA Deputy Director-General for Planning & Policy Theo Panga also noted that the easing of travel restrictions with the removal of banned countries, foreign investors will soon be able to enter the Philippines for official activities essential to the Philippine economy such as investment delegations, provided that they obtain a Philippine 9A or 9G visa and be cleared from COVID-19 testing and quarantine upon arrival.
The internationally attended forum focused on credit facilities for both ecozone locators and economic zone developers. During the event, the Philippine Central Bank underscored the potential of Islamic Finance while the Development Bank of the Philippines has offered its 15-year term loans for projects in Infrastructure & Logistics, Environment, Social Security & Community Development, Agri-business and MSME’s.
The Philippine National Bank on the other hand, also presented their comprehensive financial solutions for the Institutional Banking Sector highlighted with their global trade services.
On the same day, Plaza delivered the “State of PEZA Address” (SOPA) with the slogan “Made in the Philippines is the best and the Philippines is best to invest in!”, where she reiterated that PEZA is the top investment promotion agency in the Philippines, along with the citations from the World Bank, IFC, and US Department of State among others.
During the same event, PEZA has also conferred the ‘Galing Pinas Ecozone Investment Partnership Award 2021 to 3 of its Doha-based Investment Promotions Partners (KaPIPPs) for the Middle East namely: Joseph Timothy Rivera of the Association of Filipino Realtors & Entrepreneur Executives in Qatar (AFREEQ), Greg Loayon of the Philippine Business Council Qatar (PBCQ), and Ashraf Siddiqui of The Asian Telegraph, in honour of their contributions to PEZA. Both Rivera and Loayon served as Special Advisors to the PEZA Director-General for the Mille East from 2016 to 2018 while Rivera also served as a consultant for PEZA in 2017.
