Amid weak exports Central Visayas economy ekes out positive growth

CEBU, Philippines — The Central Visayas economy where Cebu, the economic powerhouse in the south, is a major player may have grown faster this year than last year despite the falling exports.

Regional Development Council chair Kenneth Cobonpue expressed optimism the regional economy has performed better this year as key economic drivers continued to show robust growth.

"This year, we hope to perform better than the 5.1 percent GRDP (gross regional domestic product) growth we registered in 2017," the official told the business community in a recent economic forum in Cebu City.

"We await with some suspense, seeing that as of the first semester of this year, the value of our exports was 3.1 percent lower than in the same period in 2017," Cobonpue said.

He cited that exports of manufactures (-16.8 percent change) and electronic products (-33.8 percent change) both registered significant double-digit declines.

"Further there were no BOI (Board of Investments)-registered investments in the second quarter of this year," he said.

Based on data obtained by The FREEMAN, BOI-registered projects in Central Visayas in the first nine months of 2018 totaled P14.02 billion in Central Visayas in the first nine months of 2018.

Nine projects were registered during the third quarter, totaling P2.55 billion, data showed.

"We hope that the upbeat performance indicators we see in the construction, aviation, domestic passengers and trade sectors augur well to compensate for these negatives," the RDC head pointed out.

"More importantly, because of our concern for inclusive growth, we hope to reduce our unemployment rate (5 percent in July 2018), and bring down our underemployment rate (14.7 percent in July 2018) and poverty incidence ( poverty incidence among families was 23.5 percent in 2016)," Cobonpue noted.

With inflation rate in the third quarter of this year rising above the 5 percent average for the first semester, the state of employment and poverty are of concern more than ever, he said, especially because high prices are seen in food, transport and utilities.

Moving forward, Cobonpue remained a positive outlook on the regional economy.

"Central Visayas has a number of bright spots going for us, especially in the field of infrastructure development," he said.

He cited the new Terminal 2 of Mactan-Cebu International Airport which started operations last July and can already accommodate 12 million passengers a year.

"We also have the soon-to-be opened Bohol Panglao international airport, and also ongoing construction of the third bridge that will connect Cebu and Cordova, and soon to be implemented, the new Cebu International Container Port in Consolacion, Cebu. In the near future we will be having our own mass transport system," Cobonpue said.

He said in the works also are projects that will reduce traffic congestion: the Metro Cebu Expressway, which is now on-going; the Mandaue – Cordova – Liloan Bypass Road; and the Talisay – Minglanilla – Naga Bypass Road.

In 2016, Central Visayas was among the country’s best performing economies, growing 8.1 percent.

From 2011-2016 the region averaged annual growth rate of 7.5 percent much higher than the national average of 6.1 percent.

"This growth led to generation of more jobs enabling us to reach a 95 percent employment rate," he said.