Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority - History

History

The Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority, otherwise known by its corporate name as ZamboEcozone Authority and Freeport / Zamboanga Freeport Authority(ZFA), was created by virtue of Republic Act 7903 authored by former Congresswoman Maria Clara L. Lobregat. It was enacted into law on February 23, 1995 and made operational a year later with the appointment of a Chairman and Administrator and the members of the Board by former President Fidel V. Ramos.

Zamboanga Freeport Authority was conceptualized to be an economic hub that is designed to generate local economic activities that will serve as a springboard for the promotion of trade, investments, and ecology tourism not only in Zamboanga City but also throughout the region. By nature of its operation, Zamboanga Freeport Authority is unique being both an Economic Zone and Freeport and is in fact the only Freeport in Visayas and Mindanao.

The prospects for legitimate domestic and foreign investors to set up shop in the Zamboanga Freeport where they can be free from customs tax, duties and tariff obligations, among an array of fiscal incentives like one peso per square meter per month on lease rates at the 1st Development Site; PhP 3,000.00 per hectare per year at the 2nd Development Site; Income Tax Holiday for four years extendible to a maximum of eight years; Net Operating Loss Carry Over tax scheme; 5% on Gross Income Earned ;guaranteed lease period of 50 years renewable for another 25 years, and foreign investors investing US$ 150,000.00 or more will be granted permanent residential status, along with their spouses, dependents and unmarried children below 21 years of age, foreign executives and technicians with highly specialized skills are issued working visas, renewable every two years; and 100% foreign ownership of business is definitely an attractive package to reckon with.

The Zamboanga Freeport Authority maintains a 4-storey office building in San Ramon manned by a complement of 80 technical staff tasked to oversee the area's day-to-day operations and map out its long-termed development plan. The Zamboanga Freeport Authority has two development site. The first Development Site consists of the 1st and 2nd Industrial Park. The 64.56-hectare San Ramon development site known as the First Industrial Park.

The Zamboanga Freeport Authority has come up with another priority project for the First Industrial Park. This project is in line with the President's vision of a more globally competitive Philippines. Priority is given to Retirement Village and Wellness Center, Information Technology (IT) with the availability of IT services such as Data Transcription, medical transcription, Litigation Support, Publishing Services, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Data Conversion, Graphics Animation, Computer-Aided Drafting and Design (CADD), Hispanic Call Centers, and Software Development and Maintenance. On the other hand, the 664-hectare seafront property of the Authority which serves as the site for the Second Industrial Park is the proposed site for the construction of a world-class International Seaport Complex. The complex will have a main area of 20 hectares. Other projects envisioned for the seaport site includes an 18-hole golf course, hotel, recreational facilities, restaurants, marina and theme parks.