Committed investments approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in the first nine months dropped 25 percent although exports continue to rise.

PEZA Director General Charito B. Plaza reported at their Global Biz with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) that approved investments reached P51.2 billion in the January-September period this year from P68.27 billion approved in the same period last year.

Meantime, Plaza reported that PEZA exports continued to rise reaching $40.670 billion. She, however, did not give comparative figures.

On investments, Plaza explained that the decline was largely because of the big ticket items that were approved last year. The impact of the pandemic on investors was strongly felt this year resulting in a deeper decline in investments. Plaza, however, said that investments were not completely lost, they just declined.

On exports, she said, PEZA was proud that there interventions worked resulting in continued operations of their registered companies despite the lockdown where domestic-firms were adversely affected.

So far, Plaza reported that 90 percent of their manufacturing firms are already operational while 84 percent of IT-business process management firms are already operating.