The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said at least four hyperscalers are looking into investing in the country through the investment promotion agency.
In an interview yesterday, PEZA deputy director general Tereso Panga said the capacity of these data center operators ranges from 30 to 100 megawatts.
Panga said the companies are still waiting for the developments of the May 9 polls before proceeding to their investment decision.
“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 kasi (because) only PEZA can provide franchise, 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.*PNA
