Economic Zones : What is it really?

The Rules and Regulations to Implement Republic Act No. 7916 otherwise known as The Special Economic Zone Act of 1995 provide that :

"ECOZONES or "Special Economic Zones" (SEZ) shall refer to selected areas with highly developed or which have the potential to be developed into agri-industrial, industrial, tourist, recreational, commercial, banking, investment and financial centers whose metes and bounds are fixed or delimited by Presidential Proclamations. An ECOZONE may contain any or all of the following: industrial estates (IEs), export processing zones (EPZ), free trade zones and tourist / recreational centers, which are further defined as follows:

a)    "Industrial Estate (IE)" refers to a tract of land subdivided and developed according to a comprehensive plan under a unified continuous management and with provisions for basic infrastructure and utilities, with or without pre-built standard factory buildings and community facilities for the use of a community of industries.

b)    "Export Processing Zone (EPZ)" refers to a specialized industrial estate located physically and / or administratively outside the customs territory and predominantly oriented to export production. Enterprises located in export processing zones are allowed to import capital equipment and raw materials free from duties, taxes and other import restrictions.

c)    "Free Trade Zone" refers to an isolated policed area adjacent to a port of entry (such as a seaport) and / or airport where imported goods may be unloaded for immediate transhipment or stored, repacked, sorted, mixed, or otherwise manipulated. However, movement of these imported goods from the free-trade area to a non-free trade area in the country shall be subject to customs and internal revenue rules and regulations.

 d)    "Tourist / Recreational Center" refers to an area within the ECOZONE where tourist accommodation facilities such as hotels, apartelles, tourist inns, pension houses, resorts, sports and / or recreational facilities are provided to render tourism services for both local and foreign tourists, travellers and investors in accordance with the guidelines issued by the PEZA."