THE launching of the Davao City-General Santos City-Bitung, Indonesia Roro Asean Route in Kudos Port, Davao City yesterday is a welcome development for the business sector of the Philippines and Indonesia.
The sea trade route offers a cheaper shipping cost and shorter shipping time for traders between Mindanao and North Sulawesi.
According to the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda), the current route, Davao-Manila-Jakarta-Surabaya-Bitung, has a shipping cost of $2,200/ twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) or roughly around P109,098/TEU and a shipping time of three to five weeks. Meanwhile, the Davao-General Santos-Bitung route will cost traders $700/TEU or around P34,713/TEU and a shipping time of 1.5 days, excluding port stay. The new route will give traders savings worth $1,500/TEU or around P74,000/TEU.
With the launching of this route, we see that there will definitely be improvements in terms of trade between countries. For example, “halal”-certified products coming from Indonesia will be readily available for our Muslim brothers and sisters here. Our traders here who want to tap on to the halal industry may also benchmark with their counterparts in Indonesia.
However, aside from the economic benefits of the route, we can also expect that soon there will also be improved movement of people, which in turn will also allow movement of culture between Philippines and Indonesia.
“Sea linkage within the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) sub-region is crucial in strengthening trade relations among its member countries, since it supports the achievement of the goals of the other EAGA pillars such as agribusiness, tourism, and socio-cultural and education,” said Secretary Datu Abul Khayr Alonto, chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda).
We are excited with the launch of this route as we expect more developments being spurred by this route. For example, reviving the air connectivity between Manado, Indonesia and Davao City is being eyed.
We are also encouraging traders here to take advantage of this route and explore new markets in North Sulawesi.
Let us work together in helping spur development in Mindanao and the country as a whole by supporting this route.