Biz group: Mandaue on its way to recovery

An aerial shot of parts of Mandaue City. | Brian Ochoa

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Economic activities in Mandaue City are slowly helping the city on its road to recovery, a business group here said.

In a press release issued by the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) on Friday, July 24, the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) announced that they had observed the city’s business establishments restarting and catching up.

“We are now on GCQ (general community quarantine). Businesses have started to reopen and the industries have started to ramp up their capacities,” Steven Yu, MCCI president, was quoted as saying.

Business experts pointed to Mandaue City’s industrial sector to have contributed greatly to cushioning the economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“Although we have tourism and retail shops that were affected, but at least it was balanced out with our industrial businesses and BPOs, (business processing outsourcing firms)” said Yu.

Several manufacturers of essential goods and services, and exporters are located in Mandaue City, and that their demand remained high despite the pandemic, said Yu.

He added that this particular sector alone helped Mandaue City achieve a balance in addressing public health and economic challenges.

“Recovery is in progress now but much still needs to be done to return to pre-COVID levels,” the businessman said.

The MCCI president also said that while they were gradually reopening economic and commercial activities there, vigilance must always remain.

Mandaue City, which borders Cebu City on the north, has remained under GCQ.

Data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH – 7) showed that they recorded over 1,500 COVID-19 cases as of July 23.

MCCI said economic and commercial activities in the city slowed down from April to May when it was still under a stricter enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). /dbs