Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru met with the Philippines Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in Manila on September 30, 2022, to express Marape-Rosso Government’s keen interest to learn from them.
“Our Government has just recently passed the Special Economic Zone Authority Act and we are in the process of creating between 10 to 15 new Special Economic Zones (SEZs). This is an area that we have no experience in so one of the reasons why I decided to meet with the PEZA was to see how our new authority could become a sister organization to them and learn from them so we can help each other,” said Minister Maru.
“There are zones that we want to create which will specifically target investors from the Philippines so it would be mutually beneficial if we can work together,” he said.
PEZA is an investment promotion and incentive granting agency attached to the Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines. PEZA is mandated to attract investments, generate exports, and create employment through the efficient management and administration of incentives and services in SEZs across the Philippines.
In 2021, PEZA contributed to 16% of the Philippines’ GDP, 59% of the Philippines Exports of Commodities and Goods, and 56% of service exports. Since its creation in 1995, PEZA has 420 economic zones with over 4, 000 locator companies nationwide. It has recorded an investment of P4 Trillion (about K60 billion), over USD 900 billion (about K3 trillion) exports, and created direct employment for 1.7 million people.
It was agreed during the meeting that Papua New Guinea’s new SEZ Authority would send a team for a study tour to the Philippines for a few days to meet with the team from PEZA and to visit some of their most outstanding SEZs so they could see and understand how PEZA operated and learn from their experience.
“We really want to learn from the experience of PEZA; what lessons they have leant over the years, about their SEZs that had failed and why they had failed, the SEZs that they have done very well and why they did that well, how many jobs they were able to create in the SEZs, and if SEZ is a vehicle for economic growth that PEZA would encourage us to also pursue because we are only just trying to start,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru also invited PEZA to come and share their story during Papua New Guinea’s first International Summit on Special Economic Zones which will be hosted next year.
“No one in Papua New Guinea really knows about Special Economic Zones so during this summit next year we would explain to the whole nation what it is. We are looking at having the global experts in this area from each country to come and tell their story,” he said.
