MINDA ....

efforts include establishing connectivity between Mindanao and EAGA focus areas.

“Currently, we have the private sector, which is very interested in mounting the Davao-Manado flight. We are doing initial talks with our Manado or North Sulawesi counterparts to be able to launch the Manado-Davao City direct services. This is very important because, in BIMP-EAGA, the most critical component for the development of international trade is connectivity,” Miral said.

He stressed that MinDA, being the Philippine coordinating office for the BIMP-EAGA, is doing its best to ensure the establishment of direct connections with the EAGA counterparts.

The only existing transport linkage between Mindanao and EAGA is the Zamboanga-Sandakan shipping service.

Accomplishments

The BIMP-EAGA was established to spur development in the remote and less developed areas of the Philippines,

Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. The program was formally launched on March 24, 1994, in Davao City.

It covers the entire sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, the provinces of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, and West Papua of Indonesia, the states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the federal territory of Labuan in Malaysia, the island of Mindanao, and the province of Palawan in the Philippines.

With the strong support and commitment put in by the respective governments, the BIMP-EAGA has grown stronger economically since its founding in 1994.

In 2022, the BIMP-EAGA economy grew by 7.7 percent, and the gross domestic product (GDP) was valued at $392.1 billion, which is 18.9 percent of the combined GDP of the four countries. Total trade in goods last year increased by 34.7 percent to $198.7 billion, comprising exports valued at $141.8 billion and imports amounting to $56.9 billion.