Investment pledges approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) dropped by 40 percent last year due to concerns over the government’s plan to rationalize fiscal incentives.

Data sent by Peza over the weekend showed investment pledges during the period amounted to P140.24 billion, down by 40.97 percent from P237.57 billion in 2017. They also indicated that total number of projects also went down by 4.51 percent to 529 from 554.