NEDA 2014 forecast: Outsourcing, tourism sectors to still drive CV’s growth

The National Economic Development Authority Central Visayas (NEDA-7) office has pegged growth for the region at 8.9 percent banking still on the major industries like tourism, outsourcing, construction and manufacturing.

They expect the region to still register high growth despite the recent calamities because the major industries are still growing robustly, said Maria Teresa Alambra, Neda planning division chief, in yesterday’s 888 News Forum held at the Marco Polo Plaza.

“We expect the agriculture industry to be slow this year but the loss will be gained by other industries especially the construction with many doing reconstruction works this year,” Alambra said.

Alambra said they project the construction industry to grow at least 13 percent this year.

Manufacturing also showed a lot of promise Neda receiving a lot of inquiries from Asian countries wanting to come to Cebu and set up a manufacturing plant.
“Most of them are into food processing and they are looking at the industrial zones in Mactan and Balamban where they can setup their plants,” she said.

MANUFACTURING

Apart from the outsourcing industry, Alambra said they want the manufacturing to come back to Cebu because the industry is high labor but does not demand that high level of education thus can help provide for more employment for those who did not finish a degree.

“We can solve poverty better with more employment especially for those lower educational level. The outsourcing industry like the business process outsource (BPO) and IT (information technology) already got those with higher educational attainment.”

Tourism, while Bohol and the northern part of Cebu were affected by the calamities, it is expected to recover soon with the stakeholders being very aggressive in promoting their properties.

“We encourage them to be more aggressive. Promote more so that the tourists will come back. We saw an influx of tourists during the Sinulog but these are the domestic travelers and balikbayans, we can do more to get the foreign tourists here again,” she said.

Neda Asst. Regional Director Efren Carreon last year pegged the growth for 2013 somewhere between 7.5 percent to 10 percent still fueled by outsourcing, tourism, real estate and construction.

As of the third quarter last year, the BPO sector already recorded a revenue of $435.4 million, an 84 percent jump from that of the total revenues earned in 2012 which was only at $516.8 million.

Carreon said they expect revenues to surpass 2012’s level to reach over $600 million in 2013.
Similarly, tourism, construction and real estate also continued to expand.

“This year the economy will grow robustly still. We are in the process of also finishing the RDC (Regional Development Council) Regional Development Plan. I’m going to Negros today (yesterday) to do another round of presentation of the initial plan,” Alambra said.