The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) is pushing to shift Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) cooperation from planning and agreements toward actual investments, as the sub-region enters a new decade with 265 priority infrastructure projects worth US$174.61 billion in its pipeline.
MinDA Chairperson and Philippine Signing Minister for BIMP-EAGA Secretary Leo Tereso Magno said the expanded project pipeline provides a significant opportunity to turn BIMP-EAGA Vision 2035 into bankable projects, investments and economic activity.
“I believe the next ten years must be different. They must be a decade not only of plans, but of implementation. Not only of agreements, but of investments,” Magno said during the BIMP-EAGA Forum 2026: Sub-regional Opportunities for Business Cooperation with ASEAN at the SMX Convention Center in Lanang, Davao City on Thursday.
MinDA said the number of BIMP-EAGA priority infrastructure projects has increased from 57 in 2017 to 265 as of April 2026, with a combined estimated value of US$174.61 billion.
Magno said the priority now is to move these projects beyond the pipeline and prepare them for financing and implementation, particularly by strengthening partnerships between government and the private sector.
“Governments can provide policy, infrastructure, and institutions. But governments cannot build the future alone,” Magno said.
Magno said MinDA is working with the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center through its PPP Facilitation Desk and One-Stop Shop in Mindanao to help projects advance toward financing and investment.
The push for private-sector participation comes as BIMP-EAGA targets to increase its combined gross domestic product from about US$400 billion to US$720 billion by 2035.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) Regional Cooperation Specialist Pamela A. Layugan said the next challenge for BIMP-EAGA is to develop cross-border projects that can attract financing and private investment.
“We are now ready to take off as one growth area. The issue is not so much a lack of capital as a shortage of bankable cross-border projects that investors can finance,” she said.
Layugan said the PPP center is a significant step toward addressing this.
The BIMP-EAGA Forum 2026, organized by MinDA and the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII) as part of the ASEAN Innovation Summit 2026, brought together government officials, business leaders, development partners and members of the diplomatic community to identify investment and business opportunities under BIMP-EAGA Vision 2035.
The forum featured a business success story from Roberto V. Tinsay Jr. of Bukidnon Giant Bamboo and a panel discussion with Malaysian Consul General Deddy Faisal Ahmad Salleh, Consul Johannes Manginsela of the Indonesian Consulate General, PCCI’s Joji Ilagan-Bian, BIMP-EAGA Business Council-Zamboanga’s Danica Joy Tan-Guingona and Tinsay.
The event culminated in the signing of the Davao Declaration on Greater Industry Cooperation within BIMP-EAGA, reaffirming the commitment of government and business leaders to deepen industry collaboration in support of Vision 2035.
MinDA Executive Director and Philippine Senior Official for BIMP-EAGA Undersecretary Janet M. Lopoz said concerns raised by businesses during the forum would be carried into the agency’s implementation mechanisms.
