Royal families from Middle East countries are eyeing to lease islands in the Philippines and convert them to economic zones, the new chief of Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) told reporters.
In an interview, PEZA Director General Charito B. Plaza said royal families from Qatar and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates are looking into investing in the Philippines by putting up economic zones in the islands.
“I had the opportunity to talk to the members of the royal families in Qatar and Dubai. Most of the sheikhs and the kings are into the real estate business. They signified to us that they will be coming over to invest through PEZA. And we offered to them our islands,” said Plaza.
“They’re coming over next week and they’re going to do their first exploration of how the Philippine investments are going to be,” she added.
The official mentioned that the royal families target the islands as their countries’ oil deposit facilities and also aim to put up refineries in these islands.
The potential investors likewise want to establish agro-industrial, agro-forestry, and tourism economic zones in these potential islands and looking at developing cities in the islands, according to Plaza.
“PEZA is now exploring the Middle East market,” said Plaza.
“They’re so interested to lease our agricultural lands because they’re a desert. They’re importing agricultural products from other countries,” she added.
The PEZA chief noted that the Philippine law allows government to lease out lands and islands.
“It’s allowed by law that we can lease our lands and islands for 75 years; lease only but [they] cannot buy,” Plaza said.
Plaza mentioned that PEZA is now in talks with the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority for the inventory of islands in order to identify which islands in the country can be offered to the royal families for their future investments here. —Kris M. Crismundo, Philippine News Agency (PNA)
