The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) is urging BIMP-EAGA member economies to move beyond planning and agreements and accelerate the implementation of projects that can generate investments, jobs and economic growth across the sub-region.
MinDA Chairperson and Philippine Signing Minister for BIMP-EAGA Secretary Leo Tereso Magno said the bloc’s expanded infrastructure pipeline presents an opportunity to translate the BIMP-EAGA Vision 2035 into concrete projects and investment opportunities.
“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 reported that BIMP-EAGA’s priority infrastructure projects grew from 57 in 2017 to 265 as of April 2026, with a combined estimated value of US$174.61 billion.
Magno said the focus now should be on making these projects bankable and moving them toward financing and implementation, with stronger government-private sector partnerships.
“Governments can provide policy, infrastructure, and institutions. But governments cannot build the future alone,” he said.
To help advance projects, MinDA is working with the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center through its PPP Facilitation Desk and One-Stop Shop in Mindanao, which aims to assist proponents in developing projects for financing and investment.
The investment push comes as BIMP-EAGA seeks to increase its combined gross domestic product from around US$400 billion to US$720 billion by 2035.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) Regional Cooperation Specialist Pamela A. Layugan said the sub-region’s challenge is to develop more cross-border projects capable of attracting financing and private-sector participation.
“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,” Layugan said.
She said the PPP Center could play an important role in helping address the gap.
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, gathered government officials, business leaders, development partners and members of the diplomatic community to discuss 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, followed by a panel discussion involving 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 also saw the signing of the Davao Declaration on Greater Industry Cooperation within BIMP-EAGA, reaffirming the commitment of government and business leaders to strengthen industry collaboration in support of Vision 2035.
MinDA Executive Director and Philippine Senior Official for BIMP-EAGA Undersecretary Janet M. Lopoz said the concerns and proposals raised by businesses during the forum would be incorporated into the agency’s implementation mechanisms.
“We will ensure that conversations this afternoon are carried into our mechanisms not as a summary report, but as agenda items,” Lopoz said.
