VP Sara seeks sea trade revival
‘Start with a dedicated Mindanao and Borneo team. Start with new trade arrangements. Start with the practical revival of legitimate maritime trade, supported by safer sea routes, clear customs procedures, and modern systems that bring informal activity into the formal economy.’
Vice President Sara Duterte has urged the government to push the revival of the Mindanao and Borneo cross-border trade through safer shipping routes, clearer customs procedures and stronger regional cooperation.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Duterte revisited her proposals from the Davao-Borneo Growth Corridor Forum 2026, held on 18 September at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City, saying better economic links could help residents find work without leaving their communities.
“Start with a dedicated Mindanao and Borneo team. Start with new trade arrangements. Start with the practical revival of legitimate maritime trade, supported by safer sea routes, clear customs procedures, and modern systems that bring informal activity into the formal economy,” she wrote.
She also urged governments to align policies and strengthen border systems while calling on businesses and investors to form cross-border partnerships and invest in infrastructure and services.
Duterte said Mindanao’s agricultural and tourism sectors and growing consumer market could complement Borneo’s capital, industrial capacity and logistics network.
She cited the possibility of connecting agricultural producers in Davao del Norte to buyers in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia and opening Mindanao markets to manufactured goods from Sarawak.
But she cautioned against treating infrastructure development as an end in itself.
“A port only matters when a farmer can reach a market. A shipping route matters when a trader can cross the sea safely. Infrastructure without use is just concrete,” Duterte said.
Stronger connections
She also cited $165.96 billion in merchandise trade moving through the wider region, saying stronger connections could help Mindanao and Borneo capture more economic opportunities.
Duterte said the goal of stronger regional cooperation should go beyond increasing cargo movement and investments to giving residents more reasons to remain in their communities.
“This is what growth should mean to us. Not just more cargo, more investments, bigger numbers, but more reasons to stay and more ways for talent to find a market without leaving home,” she said.
The forum gathered government officials, business leaders, investors and other stakeholders from Mindanao and Borneo to discuss cooperation in trade, investment, tourism, infrastructure, technology and workforce development.
The initiative is linked to the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), a regional cooperation initiative established in 1994 to accelerate economic development in less-developed and geographically remote areas of the four participating countries.
BIMP-EAGA covers Mindanao and Palawan in the Philippines, Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia, parts of Indonesia and the whole of Brunei Darussalam.