Central Visayas is one of the fastest growing regions in the island archipelago of the Philippines, the land of vivid colors, jeepneys, and friendly people.  Cebu is a metropolitan city located in the Provincial Island of Cebu. With a population of about 4 million, the city is the second largest in the Philippines.  The metropolitan area comprises of 7 cities and 6 municipalities.  So, technically “Metro Cebu” is not officially a government, but an economic geography that was established to foster integrated planning and coordinated implementation of policy.

The Central Visayas area where Cebu is the leading city boasts of industry and services sectors that are 36.4 percent and 55.8 percent, respectively, of the region’s economy. Agriculture accounts for only 7.8 percent. Metro Cebu has long before departed from being a predominantly agrarian economy to one that is predominantly driven by business process outsourcing (BPO), tourism and real estate.  As of 2013, there were about 140 IT and BPO firms generating close to 100,000 jobs.  About 2 million tourists visit each year. Foreign visitors are the fastest growing contributors to the local economy.

Cebu is now getting more attention as a gateway to the south.  More businesses are locating there. And of late, the city is branching out towards hosting national and international conferences, building ships, and making furniture.

As successful as Cebu city is, the city could easily reverse into a vicious cycle.  Institutional strength in dealing with corruption and government delivery programs are still weak by global standards.  Cebu has already begun to experience symptomatic issues of gridlock such as traffic, crime, congestion, pollution, rapid migration and many others. All of these are issues that occur when economic development takes place in an unbridled way without commensurate development of infrastructure supported by institutions. Cebu is not on that path yet.  The circular flow of the economy—contributions by households and businesses to ever-larger tax collections, that in turn fuel infrastructure development and services, and enables even more growth of businesses and spending by households— has yet to be established.  Like the country it belongs to, Cebu has been hot recently. However, it is unclear whether it can remain so.

Taking a leaf out of the experiences of its Asian neighbors, perhaps Cebu needs to come up with a proper master plan to manage its growth sustainably and protect the momentum that Cebu strived hard to attain.