Pasay City – The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and the Philippine Embassy to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have strengthened partnership in attracting investors to the country and promoting the Philippines as an investment haven in Asia during a virtual testimonial and briefing on Tuesday, 25 May 2021.
PEZA Director General Charito ‘Ching’ Plaza has virtually met with H.E. Adnan Villaluna Alonto, the Philippine Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi and the Republic of Yemen, and the delegation from the Philippine Embassy to discuss partnership for PEZA’s programs under its Transformational Road Map like the Global Biz.
The Global Biz with PEZA is a monthly per country investors’ forum that seeks to promote different types of economic zones as ideal locations for different types of export industries and domestic-market companies provided with new incentive subsidies for strategic and big-ticket industries and the ease of doing business in the Philippines.
“We welcome this partnership which is vital for efforts to revive and strengthen our economy, attaining our goal of transforming the Philippines to become self-reliant, self-sustaining, and resource-generating,” noted Plaza.
Support of Saudi Arabia to PH
The PEZA Chief noted the importance of exploring other opportunities especially in the Middle East for the benefit of the Filipinos.
“We are going out of the box for our plans and programs to create more opportunities for our fellowmen. As such, we will not just engage with these countries especially in KSA through our OFWs abroad, but actually build business partnerships with investors from Saudi Arabia to varied industries in the Philippines like halal, oil refinery, educational trainings like under KIST and more,” said Plaza.
For his part, H.E. Alonto expressed that “The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh support the vision of PEZA to attract more direct foreign investments to the Philippines and [I’m] expressing my gratitude, personally, for their commitment in strengthening the Philippine-Saudi trade relations.”
“I believe that at no given time than now, that we have an opportunity to somehow reconnect and change the paradigms of our bilateral relations between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia [which] rest on the paradigm of labor relations… and what could be more meaningful than promoting trade and investments,” said the Ambassador.
“We have become an important fabric in their society. It only needs to have the right atmosphere, the right trigger point to be able to promote trade investments,” he added.
Further, H.E. Alonto pledged that “Yours truly will put full weight of the Philippine Embassy into this effort not just because we want to promote ourselves, our agencies but I believe that this will be good for our country, for people, and certainly in accord with the vision of the President.”
Global Biz with PEZA for Arabian investors
Director General Plaza noted that “The present condition should not become a hindrance in our investment promotion efforts. Thus, we continue to create avenues for promotion and marketing in the ‘new normal’ set-up like the Global Biz.”
“At present, there are only meagre Saudi Arabian enterprises registered or located in PEZA ecozones. These companies engage in engineering, architectural and other design services, and in business process outsourcing. We aim to have more investors from Saudi Arabia and widen our reach for industries unique only in the Middle East,” explained the PEZA Chief.
She added, “Once the pandemic is over, we will invite our Saudi Arabian investors to visit the economic zones where they can locate their industries once they decide to invest in the Philippines.”
Moreover, H.E. Alonto proposed constant coordination for the event to continuously be informed on certain developments in Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, which would enhance our intelligence on matters such as in labor and business.
The Global Biz session for Saudi Arabian investors will be held on 29 June 2021 with the forum to focus on promoting the Philippines as an investment haven in Asia. PEZA, through Promotions and Public Relations Group Manager Aleem Guiapal and his team, is closely coordinating with the Ambassador and his team led by Mr. Rommel Romato, the Consul General and Head of the Economic Division for the said event. #