ILOILO City – This southern city has several strong fundamentals that would help hasten economic recovery from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
This was the assessment of Dr. Bernardo M. Villegas, an economist and professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), during an online economic recovery forum yesterday with the city government and other sectors.
He cited Iloilo City’s burgeoning Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Information Technology (IT) industries.
He emphasized that “no fervent COVID-19 pandemic can even take away those fundamentals.”
Villegas believed that the city’s BPO and IT industries are among the sectors that will push the economy to quick recovery.
He also cited overseas workers including seafarers as well as food and agri-entrepreneurs.
“Not to mention the sunniest of the sunrise sectors – food and agri-business…How your resources are very much in that field,” Villegas added.
Villegas also said Iloilo City has some of the best infrastructures built even before the government’s “Build Build Build” program.
Apart from this, Villegas said, Iloilo City has a very strategic location, making it one of the Top 3 cities identified by a research funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) 10 years ago. They were then looking for cities that could replace Manila as domestic, regional, international, commercial, and industrial hub.
Having a very outstanding human resource is another strong fundamental of the city, Villegas added.
“You are an education center and you have contributed to the country’s human resource in the sunrise industry of health and wellness, best nurses and health workers who will be in great demand after the pandemic,” said Villegas.
Villegas also noted that there is also a need to strategize regionally.
He suggested to the local leaders to work closely with Tourism secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat to make the metropolitan complex of Iloilo, Guimaras and Bacolod City a major agri-tourism hub.
Villegas also suggested the need to establish more technical schools in Iloilo like that of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to further enhance the skills of the Ilonggos especially the youth.
Meanwhile, according to Dr. Winston Conrad B. Padojinog, president of the UA&P, Iloilo’s economy accounts for almost 40 percent of Western Visayas’ output.
He noted that internal and external activities are what drive the city’s economy.
He suggested that the wheels of commerce must roll soon to preserve Iloilo’s economic gains and boost its future growth.
He also emphasized the need to work towards decisions and programs that will void trade-off between health and economic objectives.
“I think we’ll have to live with COVID for a long time and we cannot just wait for COVID to disappear… but we’ll have to clamp down the virus…I believe we just have to live with this virus for a long time,” Padojinog said.
The city government’s Bangon Iloilo economic forum with Iloilo Economic Development Foundation Inc. (ILED), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and Iloilo Business Club (IBC), according to Mayor Jerry Treñas, aims to help various sectors especially micro-entrepreneurs recover from the effects of the pandemic.
Treñas described the forum as very inspiring.
“We will move forward with the businessmen and farmers and schedule more economic recovery webinars. We need to give guidance to the businessmen. We need to continue inspiring them,” said Treñas./PN
