Investments registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in the first 10 months this year went up 49.89 percent to P147.9 billion versus P98.677 billion in the same period last year boosted by the approval of the P64.284 billion mineral processing project of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.

PEZA director general Lilia B. De Lima said that for the month of October alone the agency approved a total of P86.7 billion worth of projects of which P71 billion were approved during its board meeting last Oct. 28.

“We are still fighting for our 10 percent growth target this year or P170 billion over last year’s figure,” De Lima said.

This means that PEZA is only short by P22.1 billion to reach its full year target.

PEZA aims for 10-5-5 growth targets this year for investments, employment and exports, respectively over last year’s figure.

“We are still fighting for the five percent growth on employment,” De Lima.

She, however, noted that the employment level is almost back up to its figure last year before the global financial crisis has sent PEZA-enterprises retrenching and laying off workers.

De Lima said the PEZA board approved 22 projects last October 28 with combined investments of P71 billion including the P64.284 billion project of Sumitomo.

“These projects are expected to create additional employment opportunities,” De Lima said.

De Lima further said that Malacañang has yet to declare the Sumitomo mineral processing project a special economic zone.

Sumitomo’s nickel processing plant in Claver, Surigao del Norte will be the country’s second downstream nickel-processing plant by the Sumitomo-Nickel Asia, the first being CBNC in Palawan.

CBNC was put up by a Japanese consortium led by Sumitomo and Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp., another subsidiary of Nickel Asia.

The Surigao processing plant is expected to triple the size of the initial CBNC plant, which became operational in 2005 with an initial capacity of 10,000 tons per year of nickel metal equivalent. CBNC’s output has been doubled since then.

The project is expected to start early next year and commercial operation to commence after three years.