President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reports significant progress in the government’s fight against insurgency in Samar province. According to Marcos, five Samar municipalities, which he did not identify, have been declared to have “stable internal peace and security status.” He issued the remark during a distribution of assistance to farmers and fisherfolk in Calbayog City on Thursday, July 4, 2024. Photo screengrabbed from RTVM
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has designated an area in Victoria, Tarlac as a special economic zone, according to the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).
In a statement on Sunday, the PCO said the 297,719-square-meter property in Barangay Baculong will be known as the Victoria Industrial Park under Proclamation No. 623.
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The PCO said special economic zones are “selected areas with highly developed or which have the potential to be developed into agro-industrial, industrial, tourist/recreational, commercial, banking, investment and financial centers.”
“They may contain any or all of the following: industrial estates, export processing zones, free trade zones, and tourist/recreational centers,” it explained.
“Areas may be established as ecozones in a proclamation to be issued by the President and subject to the evaluation and recommendation of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) based on a detailed feasibility and engineering study,” it added.
Under Peza, investors receive assistance, registers, and grant incentives. Peza also “facilitates the business operations of investors in export-oriented manufacturing and service facilities inside selected areas throughout the country” or areas proclaimed as special economic zones.
Citing Peza’s data, the PCO said there are 419 economic zones as of April 2023 — 78 are manufacturing economic zones, 297 are information technology parks/centers, 17 are tourism export enterprises, 24 are agro-industrial economic zones, and three are medical tourism parks/center.