GOVERNMENT and business leaders are pushing to turn the BIMP-Eaga Vision 2035 into concrete cross-border projects, investments, and jobs as the subregion seeks to accelerate economic integration and shared growth.
The call took center stage at the BIMP-Eaga Forum 2026: Sub-regional Opportunities for Business Cooperation with Asean on Sept. 17 at the SMX Convention Center in Lanang, Davao City, where the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) rallied stakeholders behind the 2035 vision adopted by BIMP-Eaga leaders in Cebu last May.
Co-organized by MinDA and the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII) as part of the Asean Innovation Summit 2026, the forum brought together government officials, business leaders, development partners, and members of the diplomatic community to identify opportunities for investment and cooperation.
MinDA Chairperson and Philippine Signing Minister for BIMP-Eaga Secretary Leo Tereso A. Magno said the next decade must focus on implementation and investment rather than plans and agreements.
“I believe the next 10 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.
BIMP-Eaga aims to grow its gross domestic product from about US$400 billion today to US$720 billion by 2035. Its pipeline of priority infrastructure projects has expanded from 57 in 2017 to 265 as of April 2026, with a combined value of about US$174.61 billion, Magno said.
To help move the projects toward financing, MinDA is working with the Public-Private Partnership Center through its PPP Facilitation Desk and One-Stop Shop in Mindanao.
“Governments can provide policy, infrastructure, and institutions. But governments cannot build the future alone,” Magno said, calling on the private sector to take a bigger role.
Pamela A. Layugan, regional cooperation specialist at the Asian Development Bank, said Vision 2035 represents a shift from simply narrowing development gaps to pursuing shared prosperity across the subregion.
“We are now ready to take off as one growth area,” Layugan said.
She also supported the push for investment-ready projects, saying the challenge is not necessarily a lack of capital but a shortage of viable cross-border projects that investors can finance.
“The issue is not so much a lack of capital as a shortage of bankable cross-border projects that investors can finance. The PPP center championed by Secretary Magno is a significant step toward addressing this,” she said.
The forum featured a business success story from Roberto V. Tinsay Jr. of Bukidnon Giant Bamboo, followed by a panel discussion on business cooperation and investment opportunities.
Panelists included Malaysian Consul General Deddy Faisal Ahmad Salleh; Consul Johannes Manginsela of the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia; Joji Ilagan-Bian of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Danica Joy Tan-Guingona of the BIMP-EAGA Business Council-Zamboanga; and Tinsay. DCCCII’s John Carlo P. Tria moderated the discussion.
The forum concluded with government and business leaders signing the Davao Declaration on Greater Industry Cooperation within BIMP-EAGA, reaffirming their commitment to deepen industry collaboration across the subregion in support of Vision 2035.
The signing in Davao City, where BIMP-EAGA was launched in 1994, underscored a renewed push to move regional cooperation from policy discussions to actual business activity.
In her closing remarks, MinDA Executive Director and Philippine Senior Official for BIMP-EAGA Undersecretary Janet M. Lopoz pledged to act on the barriers raised during the forum, including market access and the cost of moving goods and people across borders.
“We will ensure that conversations this afternoon are carried into our mechanisms not as a summary report, but as agenda items,” Lopoz said.
Also present were Indonesian Consul General Agus Trenggono; Obinna Thomas, political and economic affairs counsellor of the Embassy of Nigeria; Molly Briguglio of the U.S. Embassy; Department of Tourism Davao Regional Director Tanya Rabat-Tan; DCCCII President Mirasol Tiu; Asean Innovation Summit Chairperson Dr. Maria Lourdes G. Monteverde; and DATE 2026 Chairperson Ruben See. PR
