ILOILO City – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) set a 6.5 percent growth target for Western Visayas this year, higher than the 6.1 percent growth rate the region posted in 2018.
The region remained the fifth largest regional economy, according to NEDA regional director Ro-Ann Bacal, but its growth markedly slowed down last year from 2017’s 8.6 growth rate.
“With 6.5 percent, you know the economy is robust, money is circulating and business is doing good,” she said.
Local government units (LGUs) have a key role to play, said Bacal, while regional offices of national government agencies would just be providing guidance.
“We are still excited about Western Visayas. A number of things continue to happen. We expand roads, we open opportunities for the transport of goods from and to far-flung areas,” she added.
Bacal stressed the need to focus on the agriculture and fishery sectors which performed poorly last year.
In her recent State of the Region Address (SORA), Regional Development Council chairperson and Antique governor Rhodora Cadiao said Western Visayas’ agriculture, forestry and fishery (AFF) sectors decelerated to negative 1.4 percent growth from 8.8 percent in 2017.
Cadiao attributed this to the negative 1.6 percent growth in the agriculture and forestry subsectors and the negative 0.6 percent growth of the fishing subsector.
“In the case of the agriculture sector, I’m really disappointed knowing that my counterpart is doing her best. Director (Remelyn) Recoter (of the Department of Agriculture Region 6) is going around exerting so much effort to reach out to LGUs,” said Cadiao.
Meanwhile, Bacal expressed confidence that the reopening of Boracay Island to tourists beginning October 2018 would contribute to the performance of the region’s tourism sector.
In his SORA, Cadiao reported that the Department of Tourism’s number of tourist arrivals decreased by 15.33 percent – from 5.8 million in 2017 to 4.9 million in 2018.
Also, she said, total tourism receipts went down from P128.46 billion in 2017 to P104.86 billion in 2018.
Cadiao said the drop in tourist arrivals by 900,000 could be attributed to the six-month temporary closure of Boracay from April to October last year for a massive rehabilitation.
The closure also resulted to foregone revenues by LGUs. Cadiao cited the drop in revenue collections at passenger terminals, and environmental fees.
At an average daily tourist arrival then of about 5,941, LGUs experienced losses of about of P1.93 million daily or P57.92 million per month, or an estimated P347.52 million for six months, said Cadiao.
“The loss of income was felt more critically by individuals whose employment were curtailed due to the temporary closure of Boracay,” according to the RDC chief.
Clearly, said Cadiao, the temporary closure of Boracay resulted to a marked slowdown of the regional economy./PN
