Mindanao Development Forum opens in Davao with a 4.69 percent growth claim, an investment portal and a push to fund the railway study

Who came and what they heard

The forum runs October 27 and 28 under the theme "Mindanao's Next Growth Chapter: Mobilizing Private Sector and Development Partnerships for Shared Prosperity." Abalos and MinDA Secretary Leo Tereso Magno struck a tagungguan to open it before an audience of national and local officials, Bangsamoro ministers, bankers, development agencies, academics and civil society groups. The European, American and Canadian chambers of commerce and the Joint Foreign Chambers of Davao City took part after a preparatory meeting on September 16 led by MinDA Executive Director Janet Lopoz.

Also in the hall were National Anti Poverty Commission Secretary Manny Pacquiao, Anti Red Tape Authority Director General Ernesto Perez, Davao del Norte Governor Edwin Jubahib, Oroquieta City Mayor Lemuel Meyrick Acosta and Bangsamoro Interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua.

Magno told the audience that the old argument over whether peace must come before development has been settled. "Peace is no longer just an aspiration. It is a reality," he said. "Peace opened the door. Institutions built the foundation. Investments will fill it with jobs. If you invest in Mindanao, you invest in the whole East ASEAN Growth Area." He said the agency wants the forum to produce an investment pipeline, policy recommendations and partnership agreements for the island's 27 million people.

The growth numbers

Magno said Mindanao's economy expanded 4.69 percent in 2025, ahead of the national 4.4 percent. Caraga grew fastest at 5.7 percent. Davao Region grew 5.1 percent and kept its gross regional domestic product above one trillion pesos for the third straight year, and Northern Mindanao grew 4.9 percent while staying above the trillion peso mark. The Zamboanga Peninsula and Soccsksargen recorded steadier expansion driven by services, agriculture, agribusiness and manufacturing.

Abalos, reading the President's message, said Mindanao accounted for more than 17.2 percent of the national economy in 2025 but still faces uneven growth, weak farm and fisheries output, slow manufacturing and persistent unemployment and underemployment.

The deposit base behind those numbers was spelled out separately this month in Cagayan de Oro, where banker Amado Castaño Jr. told a Rotary Club forum that Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation data put Davao City's domestic bank deposits at 340 billion pesos as of December 31, 2025, tenth among the country's cities, and Cagayan de Oro's at 180 billion, fifteenth. Northern Mindanao's total of 335 billion pesos ranked eighth among the 17 regions outside the capital, with Iligan at 38 billion, Ozamiz at 20 billion and Malaybalay at 16 billion. "That amount of bank deposits represents readily available capital for business," Castaño said.

The President's message and the portal

The message from the President listed the policies the national government is counting on to draw investors: the Green Lanes for Strategic Investments, the Public Private Partnership Code, and executive orders meant to speed mining applications while keeping environmental safeguards. It said more than 100 of the 265 priority infrastructure projects under the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area are slated for Mindanao. "These efforts should mean lower transport costs, more reliable infrastructure, more local jobs, and better public services for our people," the message said.

MinDA used the opening to launch the Mindanao Investment Portal, an online directory meant to help local and foreign investors find sites, incentives and partners across the island's local governments. "Today, with the portal launched, we make it easier than ever for investors to join us in building a more competitive, inclusive, and investment ready Mindanao," Magno said.

The two day program covers competitiveness, financing, public private partnerships, agriculture and agribusiness, energy and infrastructure, and the Bangsamoro economy, and ends with an investment and partnership marketplace for business matching and pitching among local governments, the Bangsamoro government, investors and development partners.

Bangsamoro's pitch

Macacua, three days before the elected Bangsamoro Parliament convenes on October 30 to choose his successor or return him to office, told the forum the region is ready to turn the peace process into business. He cited nearly five billion pesos in investments drawn to the region over the past year in agriculture, fisheries, housing and logistics. The Philippine News Agency reported that the Bangsamoro Board of Investments approved five billion pesos worth of projects in 2025 that generated more than 2,000 jobs.

"Peace must mean better incomes for our farmers, decent work for our young people, growing businesses for our entrepreneurs, and dignity and security for our communities," Macacua said. He said holding investor confidence requires strong policies, reliable infrastructure, capable institutions and close cooperation between government and the private sector, and he invited the audience to take "the next step, from peace to prosperity" with the region.

The railway, again

The most concrete ask of the day came from Jubahib, who chairs the Davao Regional Development Council. He told reporters at the hotel that the council chairs of Mindanao have agreed to lobby the Department of Budget and Management to put feasibility studies for all four segments of the Mindanao Railway Project in the 2027 General Appropriations Act. The segments to be prioritized are Phase 1 from Tagum City through Davao City to Digos City and Phase 3 from Cagayan de Oro to Misamis Occidental, so that the north and the south move together.

Jubahib said Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte has been in contact with the Japan International Cooperation Agency about the project. At the Japan Philippines Friendship Kadayawan Matsuri Night in August, Japanese Consul General Ono Hirotaka said Japan is open to funding the railway if the Philippine government asks. Jubahib said all the council chairs would support such an offer.

Magno said MinDA continues to look for private money as well. The project is divided into 13 segments, feasibility studies for Segments 1 and 3 are nearing completion, and some segments are open to unsolicited proposals. The full 1,544 kilometer system is meant to link Davao, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Cotabato, Zamboanga, Butuan, Surigao and Malaybalay. The Tagum to Digos segment was approved under the previous administration with Chinese financing that never arrived, and the Marcos administration dropped the loan in 2023, so the 2027 budget line Jubahib is asking for would restart the project from the study stage.

What to watch is whether the budget department includes the studies in the National Expenditure Program for 2027, what commitments MinDA announces when the forum closes on October 28, and whether the portal lists anything beyond what the regional investment promotion offices already publish.