The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said at least four foreign-based hyperscalers are looking into investing in the country but are still waiting for the developments of the May 9 polls before proceeding to their investment decision.
In an interview Tuesday, May 11, PEZA deputy director general Tereso Panga said the capacity of these data center operators ranges from 30 to 100 megawatts.
“These are big players aggressively looking for a site already,” he said, adding that these firms are eyeing the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna.
Hyperscalers are providers of scalable data storage services.
The PEZA official said data center providers want to register their projects with PEZA so that they are not exposed to the regular high power rates outside ecozones.
“Data center — it’s power intensive. So they want to be co-located in PEZA zone because only PEZA can provide embedded power to operate it in ecozone. If they are not inside the ecozone, they will be exposed to regular power rates, and this is a big-ticket project. They would want to be in an ecozone,” Panga added.
He said PEZA has urged the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) to include ecozone development among economic activities that would be provided with tax perks from the government. — Kris Crismundo (PNA)
