The Philippine Economic Zone Authority said growth prospects in investments, exports, and employment will counteract the massive layoffs expected this year.

PEZA Director General Lilia de Lima said investments are seen to rise by 10 percent from last year's P154.9 billion, counting on new areas such as tourism (medical and retirement) zones, agro-industrial zones, shipbuilding, and information technology.

Citing reports from the Department of Labor and Employment, de Lima said that around 3,000 workers have lost their jobs last year. For 2009, however, she said that the layoffs would be much smaller.

"In a crunch, companies will seek low-cost but highly productive areas for industrial redeployment," De Lima said in a presentation at the Bulong Pulungan forum at the Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City Monday.

Aside from a growth in investments, De Lima said that exports are seen to go up by five percent this year, recovering from last year's drop by 0.88 percent.

"We have other sectors like business process outsourcing and call centers. Locators are training and retraining their people in other languages like German, French, Spanish because they want to offer their services to a wider market," she said.

Exports of locators in ecozones stood at $40.53 billion in 2008 from $49.9 billion in 2007. Employment, on the other hand, stood at 608,057 at end-2008, higher by 2.52 percent in 2007.

Texas Instruments, manufacturer of digital signal processors for cellular phones in Baguio City has already retrenched 392 workers because of the global financial crisis. Around 400 workers, on the other hand, were laid off by Peninsula Fashion International Corp., the biggest exporter in Clark Freeport.

Limech laid off 541 employees and closed down its newest factory. Others have implemented a 4-day workweek, while some were sent on extended vacation.