APEC summit expected to bring economic development to Philippines' Mindanao

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit 2015 held in the Philippines was successful, and a southern region of the country expressed optimism that the event would bring much economic developments in the island.

"Though it is early to tell but we are hoping that Apec 2015 will have a positive impact in terms of investments in Mindanao," said Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) director of public affairs Romeo Montenegro in a report by SunStar. "Definitely in a broader scale in terms of how the international community investors look at Philippines as a whole, the country managed to handle the hosting well especially in terms of presenting that Philippines is a viable destination for investments."

However, he said, bringing these investments down to the southern part of Philippines, which is Mindanao, is a completely different task. Mindanao has a tainted reputation of being a war zone filled with kidnappings and terrorism. However, this is just the effect of sensationalism brought by centralized media, which comes from the northern capital of the country in Manila.

Mindanao business leaders and policy makers have been presenting a lot of areas in the island that can be viable investment hubs. War in Mindanao is just contained in the remote areas in far flung provinces.

Manila Bulletin reported that during the Apec summit, major transportation projects broke ground, including the MRT Line 3 and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2. The interconnectedness of foreign investment, security, safety and vital peace deals were signed during the event.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Star reported that even though the APEC Summit was successful, it cost the nation abut P18.4 billion to P29.8 billion due to the four extra days of holidays.

Meanwhile, according to the Board of Investments (BOI)-Davao Extension Office there is an additional 9.2 billion pesos worth of investments in Mindanao during the third quarter.