Massive foreign interest in cryptocurrency trading and financial technology solutions helped the Philippines’ Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) deliver robust results in the second quarter of 2018, with revenues jumping by almost 52%.
In a statement emailed to Cryptovest, CEZA Administrator and CEO Raul Lambino said his agency netted total revenues equivalent to about $6.39 million in the second quarter, with $3.86 million coming from offshore fintech companies, most of them cryptocurrency traders.
"The overwhelming interest by offshore firms in financial technology solutions and cryptocurrency trading wanting to locate at the Cagayan Special Economic Zone has surpassed all our expectations,” Lambino said, adding that inquiries about the CEZA project are rising on a daily basis.
"It's only the end of the second quarter, and we have already exceeded our target for the entire twelve months of last year," he also noted.
Lambino was referring to the roughly $2.18 million increase over CEZA’s 2017 income of $4.21 million, mostly from online gaming operations.
He explained the fintech income reflects only license and application fees collected from companies that want to conduct initial coin offerings (ICOs), virtual currency exchange, financial technology solutions, or blockchain development in the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport.
In all, CEZA expects to generate nearly $67.5 million from the initial batch of 25 licensees, including their investment commitment of $1 million each but excluding the 0.1% share from every transaction value generated by offshore virtual currency exchange services.
In a recent interview for Cryptovest, Lambino said CEZA expected to attract serious investments from blockchain projects in the next few years, which would create thousands of jobs. The executive hopes his initiatives at CEZA would transform the Philippines into one of the most important markets for the blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech industries.
“Within the next two years, we are looking at around $200 million in fresh investments from these blockchain projects. But within the next five years, we are expecting at least $1 billion,” Lambino told Cryptovest.
Based on his estimates, CEZA’s blockchain projects would initially create 20,000 new jobs for highly-skilled IT employees plus associated highly technical and managerial positions.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
