#MINDANAO
The first week of the new year brought many of us back to work to execute the plans we set in the last months of the previous year. For some, this meant going to the drawing board to figure out how to navigate the opportunities and challenges on the horizon.
A keen sense of these elements ought to make us sharper in our planning, and able to set the right conditions for continuous business and enterprise growth. This will also allow us to make adjustments in our plans when operating conditions change.
At any rate, the mature way of dealing with what is to come is to be mindful of threats and opportunities, bringing with us the sharp mind, and the courage to assess and manage the risks, or take advantage of opportunities. This makes us ready for 2024 and beyond.
Time to revisit BIMP EAGA
I hope that direct flights between Davao and Manado in North Sulawesi in Indonesia, and between Zamboanga and Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia can be launched. The Davao to Manado flight last operated before the pandemic.
These flights will facilitate trade and tourism links between Mindanao and North Sulawesi, helping strengthen the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).
If regular flights resume, I am confident that business and trade links between Mindanao, North Sulawesi in Indonesia, Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia, and Kalimantan in Indonesia will grow as a result of these reinvigorated linkages.
Moreover, as Davao has begun restarting international flights, passengers from Manado can connect through the Davao International Airport to selected onward destinations.
These increased linkages will prove to be an opportunity for many businesses in Mindanao to find new markets, especially for manufactured products, selected agricultural commodities and packaging materials for Indonesia’s large consumer market.
The importance of boosting trade within BIMP EAGA cannot be underscored, as improving the competitiveness of product and services will mean having nearby markets that companies can sell to and suppliers where materials can be sourced. I would like to reprint a column I wrote last August 22, 2022, on BIMP EAGA where I stated that the economic success of ASEAN itself will benefit from the increased trade within and subregional grouping:
“I believe ASEAN-level cooperation, and the pursuit of its three pillars – security, economic community and socio-cultural pillars — is best fulfilled when sub-regional groupings such as BIMP EAGA flourish. This enables the benefits enjoyed by those from the diverse and fast-growing region to spread further and spur investment, and eventually achieve a growth that will be felt by those who live far from the country’s capital cities.”
“Some approaches to spur this trade include electronic commerce-based trading between BIMP-EAGA countries. This enables deep market reach and penetration, thereby boosting trade volumes between the countries. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies from each country can now collaborate more effectively as the post-pandemic economy has made electronic commerce a more robust and widely used means of inter-country trade.
“Another is to do active, sustained business and market matching between buyers and suppliers to spur business relationships. When this happens, economic opportunity broadens, and each economy grows.”