The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), some of the country’s top investment promotion agencies (IPAs), have agreed to split their functions and speed up the decision-making process in facilitating investments in New Clark City in Tarlac.
Under this interim arrangement, PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga explained that “BCDA will monitor and report investment approvals for developer projects, while PEZA will monitor and report locator projects.”
Panga, however, said this setup will be limited to BCDA’s New Clark City and will exclude supervision of Hann, Filinvest and the upcoming project of Endec which he said will all be under PEZA.
The state-run BCDA will also now take on the role of regulator of developers/operators in New Clark City, similar to how PEZA regulates the Filinvest Innovation Park in the same area.
“The goal is to capacitate BCDA so that in five years, they will be able to register and administer incentives according to PEZA’s model,” Panga noted.
PEZA said that it will assist BCDA in project registration, as well as fiscal and non-fiscal incentive administration.
Under this setup, Peza will be granted the authority to issue building permits within these zones. “All of these will be implemented through a MOA that we will be working on with BCDA,” Panga further explained.
With this interim arrangement in place, the Panga said the major change lies in having a “seamless and well-defined roles” for both investment promotion agencies.
“It gives them predictability, and speeds up the decision-making process, which we all need to support the government’s agenda to promote the Luzon Economic Corridor,” Panga said.
In a social media post, Peza said this approach “leverages” BCDA’s expertise in property development and estate management alongside Peza’s “renowned” one-stop-shop services for locators.
This partnership between PEZA and BCDA “not only prevents jurisdictional overlaps between the two investment promotion agencies but also capitalizes on our core competencies to attract more investors to the Philippines, particularly along the Luzon Economic Corridor,” Panga added.
For his part, BCDA President Joshua Bingcang said this partnership will combine the two agencies’ “strengths” in infrastructure development and public-private partnerships with investment facilitation.
“For new investors, we are ready to assure that flagship projects such as New Clark City will greatly benefit from PEZA’s trademark ease of doing business,” added Bingcang.