Manila, Oct. 31 -- Projects approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in the first 10 months this year rose 41.72 percent to PHP175.37 billion, making its officials optimistic of hitting the agency's PHP250 billion target this year.

Data released by the agency on Friday showed that the 243 new and expansion projects approved by the PEZA Board as of the end of October this year are expected to generate around USD6.079 billion in exports and create 59,937 direct jobs for Filipinos.

Bulk of these investments are from Japan, followed by those from the Cayman Islands, South Korea, China, Singapore and the USA, among others.

During the same period, investments in domestic market-focused businesses reached PHP84.31 billion, wh...