MALOLOS CITY-Central Luzon posted P156.040-Billion in investments last year despite sluggish investments in two provinces, the Central Luzon Investment Promotion Center (CLIPC) said.

In 2004, the region posted a total of P142.149-B in investments.

The CLIPC also said that 202,976 new jobs were generated last year compared to 131,36 2 jobs created in 2004.

Records showed that Zambales posted the biggest amount of investments compared to six other provinces in Central Luzon with P59.735-B for the year 2005 followed by Bataan with P53.748-B.

On the third spot is Pampanga with P20.277-B followed by Bulacan with P17.531-B, while Nueva Ecija posted P2.382-B, Tarlac with P1.724-B and Aurora with P643-Million.

Rhine Aldana, the Department of Trade and Industry provincial supervisor in Bulacan said that the presence of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority in Bataan, Clark in Pampanga, Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales and Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac contributed to investment and employment generations of the region.

However, sluggish performance of the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan last year is attributed to the above normal investments in 2004 when Bataan led all provinces in the region when it posted a whooping P98.623-B followed by Bulacan with P17.794-B.

Jerry Caguingin, of the Investment Promotion Division of the Bulacan Provincial Government said that the decrease of investment in Bulacan last year was due to aggressive expansions of big companies in 2004.

He said that since the expansions were over, the companies have started hiring working to fill the vacancies and this led big improvement in employment generation not only in Bulacan but region wide.

CLIPC records for 2005 shows that Pampanga led all provinces in Central Luzon with 66,455 employment generated followed by Bulacan with 51,261 new jobs last year.

Zambales is third with 30,282 jobs created, followed by by Nueva Ecija with 23,156, Bataan is fifth with 16,708, while Tarlac generated 12,389 jobs and Aurora with 2,725 last year.

The CLIPC said that the increase in employment can also be attributed to the marketing promotions of the Small, Medium enterprises in the region through local and international fairs, and through further product development that translated into new jobs.