Cebu gears up for Asean integration

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu will have its own competitiveness roadmap in preparation for the Asean integration in 2015.

A study will be conducted by the School of Business and Economics of the University of San Carlos, in partnership with Cebu Investment and Promotions Center (CIPC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The research project is seen to enhance Cebu’s competitiveness in the face of the 2015 Association of Southeast Asian Nations integration.

The partnership’s goal is to provide economic information and statistics on Cebu that can further entice foreign and domestic investments.

Spearheaded by the Department of Economics of the University, three research projects will be undertaken. First project is entitled “An Update on the Business Process Outsourcing Industry in Cebu,” which will give a historical perspective of the BPO industry in Cebu in the following aspects: market structure and growth trends, business environment (including regulations), demands for utilities particularly broad band needs and uses; human resource management and attrition rate and disparity on skills needs of the industry vis-à-vis capabilities of applicants.

The second research project is entitled “A Competitiveness Study of Cebu as Perceived by Peza Locators.”

The project will attempt to assess the competitiveness of Cebu vis-à-vis major cities in Southeast Asia where competitiveness is defined as the ability of a city to create and maintain an environment that sustains more value creation for its enterprises and more prosperity for its people.

The cities to be studied includes Cebu, Philippines and any of the following: Ho Chin Minh (Vietnam), Hanoi (Vietnam), Bangkok (Thailand), Jakarta (Indonesia), Guangzhou and Shenzen (China).

For Cebu, the assessment will be done by Peza locators who are seen as major drivers of foreign direct investments in Cebu economy.

The study will use a standard set of competitiveness indices that will capture the role of different competitiveness factors.

The third research project is “The Cement Industry: Fueling Growth in Cebu”. The project will provide information on the structure, market, environment (including regulations) and growth of the cement industry in Cebu as an indicator of domestic growth for Cebu province.

Earlier, Asian Development Bank (ADB)  senior economist for its country office in the Philippines Norio Usui said that the key to improve productivity in the Philippines is to increase the wages of the workers.

"You should have high wage to improve productivity, " Usui said.

The Japanese economic expert said that development is always linked to high productivity.  Thus, if the Philippines will not work harder in improving this major key, the country is bound to fail in  its "golden opportunity" to complete and take advantage of its highly-energized economy.

"Development is all about productivity," Usui emphasized. /JMD (FREEMAN)