THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) 7 believes the regional economy will be able to perform well this year despite rising prices of goods and declining exports.
Neda 7 expects inflation rate in Central Visayas to go up to about 9.2 percent in the first quarter of this year. It also reported that exports, which is the region’s leading growth driver, also decreased by 5.2 percent in volume last year.
“What gave us hope amid the global economic crisis was the fact that investment confidence and investment continued to flow in the region,” said Neda 7 Director Marlene Ca Rodriguez in an economic briefing last Friday.
She said investments in the region increased in 2008 and investor confidence remained high based on a survey commissioned by the Cebu business community.
In 2008, value of investments approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority amounted to more than P21 billion from only P4.3 billion in the previous year. Investments registered under the Board of Investments, on the other hand, increased to P22.4 billion from P15.6 billion in 2007.
Local efforts
Neda lauded efforts made by local government leaders and the business community in the region to cope with the crisis.
This includes the move of Central Visayas leaders to pursue the One Visayas program and the creation of the Cebu Economic Advisory Group (CEAG) by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI).
With the deepening global economic crisis, Neda said, sustained construction activities, tourism and the business process outsourcing industry in Central Visayas will drive the regional economy this year.
Although the tourism industry in the region is expected to slow down further—tourist arrivals declined in 2008—Rodriguez said the total figure will be within the 550,000-mark.
“Tourists continued to include Central Visayas as part of their destination,” she said.
Rodriguez said government infrastructure projects in the region will help boost the regional economy.
In Cebu, these projects include the Metro Cebu Development Project III Coastal Road and the Cebu North Coastal Road Project amounting to a total of P3.7 billion; three port projects in Daanbantayan town and in the cities of Talisay and Cebu; power projects in the towns of Sibonga, Alcoy and Medellin; and an irrigation project in Carcar.
Since the region has managed to outperform national targets for gross domestic product during the previous years, Rodriguez believes that the gross domestic product (GDP) for Central Visayas will still be above the national average of 4.6 percent GDP.
“In a span of 12 years the regional economy was able to post a growth rate higher than eight percent three times—in 1996, in 2000 and in 2007,” she said. (DME)
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