Member countries of the East Asean Growth Area (EAGA) ARE now focusing on the revival of the sea and air linkages that were established in some of routes but were disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) secretary, this initiative will be one of several issues to be discussed during the 33rd BIMP-EAGA Senior Officials Meeting and Ministerial Meeting scheduled this week.
Malaysian Consul General Deddy Faisal Bin Ahmad Salleh disclosed that among the connectivity issues to be addressed is the revival of the Zamboanga City to Kota Kinabalu flights that were already existing shortly before the pandemic but were eventually cut off due to some load factor issues.
In his speech during the opening of the BIMP-EAGA trade exhibit, the Malaysian consul general stressed the importance of connectivity within the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia and Philippine corridor for trade within the EAGA to flourish.
“The proposed Zamboanga–Sandakan and Davao–Labuan maritime routes, along with improved roll-on roll-off (RORO) services, could drastically reduce logistics costs by up to 30 percent and transit time by half. Similarly, expanding air links between Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, and Davao will make it easier for business travelers and investors to move within the growth area,” Salleh pointed out.
He added that although BIMP-EAGA as a region contributed US$300 billion to the gross domestic product of the entire Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), much of the trade in the area has been flowing outward to Japan, China, and Singapore rather than across the EAGA.
On the other hand, Indonesian Consul General Agus Trenggono mentioned similar concerns that will touch on the sea linkage between General Santos City and Davao with the Indonesian city of Bitung, which was also halted due to load factor issues and was aggravated by the ensuing pandemic lock down.
Although intra-trade within the Eaga was already rising by about seven percent annually over the past decade, the real potential in the region remains largely untapped and this poses as a challenge and an opportunity, especially for East Malaysia and Mindanao.
In ending Salleh cited that “the most important thing for trade to flourish is to create the environment for good connectivity in the region and reactivating the direct flights from Southern Philippines and Palawan to Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur, which were also affected by the pandemic.”
“I really hope that the direct flights will be reintroduced because just a day before the pandemic was declared in 2020, we already had a direct flight from Zamboanga to Kota Kinabalu by Philippine Airlines, but because of the pandemic, the direct flights had to be cancelled,” the Malaysian official concluded.