By Cheneen R. Capon
Traces of old Davao remains despite the city going a long way to its march towards inevitable economic progress.
Old buildings along the Claveria Street (Claro Mayo Recto Street),which used to be the center of trade and commerce in city, is now being replaced with sky-high condominiums developed by local and Manila-based real estate developers.
In just less than 10 years, the city moved from a sleeping giant into a promising city that continues to entice investors both local and foreign with its growing population reaching to 1.6 million- an average of 2.36 percent growth rate annually, and strong local economy driven by different industries.
With a stable economic growth, the city became the melting pot to some of the top 200 companies in the country who are engaged in different industries like real estate development, manufacturing, retail and business process management.
Ranked fourth in the cities and municipalities competitiveness index in 2014, Davao City ranks high nest only to Makati City, Cagayan de Oro, and Naga City.
Ivan Chin Cortez, officer-in-charge of the Davao City Investment Promotion Center (DCIPC), said businesses here continued to boom as reflected by the annual increase in capitalization which reached to a total of P214 billion as of November 2015.
Cortez said records from the Business Bureau showed a 1.4 percent increase from 2014’s P211.9 billion capitalization. Businesses issued with business permits from January to November 2015 showed that it increased from 34,711 in 2014 to 37,785 last year.
“Every year we really expect and experience growth on the business establishments and capitalizations which can be attributed to the partnership and merging of small businesses into one entity,” Cortez said.
Of the total P214 billion capitalization in 2015, P4.2 billion was contributed by new businesses while the remaining P208.9 billion were from the businesses which renewed its permits.
In the last three years, the DCIPC noted that the companies that consistently placed in the top five firms with huge capitalizations in the city has been topped by the telecom giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), flag carrier Philippine Airlines,Inc., China Banking Corporation, and Holcim Philippines,Inc.
In 2015, Manila-based developer Filinvest Land, Inc. placed on the sixth ranked with its various subdivision projects. It was followed by the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Davao-based Anflo Management & Investment Company, DSG Sons Group for its investment in the improvement of Gaisano Mall of Davao, and the Chelsea Shipping Corp.
Apart from these companies, Cortez said the city continued to be a prime destination for foreign and local business process outsourcing.
Employing an approximate of 35,000 talents, the BPO sector is noted to be one of the economic drivers here apart from the fast-growing sector of real-estate development.
Recently, the city of Davao climbed up in list of the top 100 areas in the world that is conducive for the flourishing ICT industry.
Recently, US-based Experts Global Solutions (EGS) opened its door to Dabawenyos. The ICT-Davao expected that more foreign-based companies will come in Davao because of its rich talent pool as well as environment conducive for business operation.
Davao City: investor magnet
When asked why the city continues to entice both local and foreign investors, Cortez cited the seven reasons to justify why it is an advantage to pour investments here.
Market is ripe for the picking- it’s the convergence point in Southern Philippines and good logistics make that happen.
Conducive environment for business— the city has the right mix of ingredients to cook a business and satisfy discriminating palate of producers, service providers, end users.
Life is good in Davao— it may not be as big compared to well known megacities in terms of market size but businessmen who took the dip, did it not only for profits’ sake  but also for the pleasure of being in Davao City which is a reward in itself.
The best of both worlds – urban amenities and rural pleasures all within arms length. This particular reason is hard to beat.
There is enough space to start a business or expand on an existing one – the sprawl type of urbanization in Davao is highly preferred by those in the BPO industry especially in the voice sector since sprawl means lesser incidences of agents being recruited by a competitor.
Public Private Partnerships and Collaboration- the Davao LGU works closely with business organizations and associations in implementing programs and projects to improve and better the business environment.
High Productivity and availability of talent – being the center of commerce and education in Southern Philippines with over 50 tertiary institutions (colleges, universities and technical schools)- there is a high probability of running a business so smoothly in terms of manpower and productivityÂ
With all the growth indicators showing a city ready to rumble in autobahn speeds of modernization, Davao City indeed has gone a long way from a dark, troubled past. Not just that, there is more than probably meets the eye.
