What Cebu biz leaders expect in SONA 2018

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu business community is anticipating to hear more of President Duterte’s economic agenda as he delivers his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 23.

Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Antonio Chiu said yesterday he particularly wants Duterte to talk about plans for Cebu. 

“The most important issue affecting the business sector as well as the whole of Cebu is the lack of an efficient mass transport system and more infrastructure to solve our traffic problem. We hope (the President) will take this up in his SONA,” the business leader told The FREEMAN.

For his part, Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice president Steven Yu noted the “business sector would want to know where we are in terms of the achievement of the 10-point economic agenda that the Duterte administration laid out since the beginning of his term.”

“If not for certain external developments, we would have been in a much better plain so to speak,” the chamber official pointed out.

“But things happened, and it did caused inflationary progression, and interest rates increased and may continue to increase,” he further told The FREEMAN.

Yu asserted the business community would also want to hear how the government is going to address external developments affecting the economy.

“In relation to this and the brewing trade war, what could we possibly do to avert the overheating of the economy?

“What are the possible measures that the government can implement to bring down costs of doing business?

“Where are we in terms of the Build, Build, Build infrastructure build-up? What measures are forthcoming to reduce congestion? These are our major concerns that can sustain the viability of industries in general,” the MCCI vice president also explained.