Davao City in focus
Davao City has been touted as a safe city and has ranked as one of the calmest and most livable cities in all of Southeast Asia in 2016. (Kadayawan via Wikimedia Commons)
Davao City is one of the most important economies in Mindanao and the third most important urban center in the Philippines, next to Metro Manila and Cebu.
With a total land area of 2,444 sq. km., it’s the largest city in the Philippines in terms of land area, and home to over 182 barangays and 11 ethnolinguistic tribes. As of the 2020 Census, the city has a population of close to 1.8 million—the first city in Mindanao and Visayas to exceed one million inhabitants.
Safe, livable city
Since 2015, Davao City has been touted as a safe city, with an average monthly crime rate of around 4.7. It also ranked as one of the calmest and most livable cities in all of Southeast Asia in 2016.
Several awards and seals have likewise praised the competitiveness and good governance of, as well as the overall quality of life in, Davao.
The National Competitiveness Council hailed Davao as the third most competitive urbanized city in 2017, while the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) conferred the Seal of Good Local Governance on the city two years prior to this recognition.
It is also the five-time recipient of the Child Friendly Municipalities and Cities (National) award from the Office of the President, receiving the award in 1998, 1999, 2012, 2014, and 2015. The city further maintains its status as a smoke-free city, even earning a spot in the Office of the President’s Red Orchid Award “Hall of Fame.”
To maintain this status, Davao City upholds a 12-point agenda that prioritizes and focuses on improving 12 facets of urban life, namely: poverty alleviation, infrastructure development, agriculture and agribusiness, sustainable environment, health, education and human resource development, business and industrial support development, peace and order, good governance through innovative ICT, transportation planning and traffic management, tourism and development and support services, and disaster risk and reduction management. The 12-point agenda has been in place since 2022.
Economic opportunities
As a bustling center that’s also rich in culture, Davao City offers numerous economic and investment opportunities.
Davao City’s economy was valued at P3.4 trillion in 2022. It also helped drive the growth of the Davao Region, with the city accounting for 51.6 percent of the region’s overall economy in 2021, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Several businesses with Mindanao-wide operations have taken advantage of Davao City’s potential for generating sales and its overall logistical ease, with companies involved in retail trade and fruit exports pursuing business in the city.
Davao City itself is Mindanao’s leading exporter of mangoes, pomelos, bananas, coconut products, pineapples, papayas, mangosteens, and cacao. Alongside its export of fruits, the city is known as an international port that ships large quantities of abaca.
The Davao Gulf also helps provide livelihood to local fishermen, generating fish products such as yellow fin tuna, brackish water milkfish, mudfish, shrimp, and crab that are then sold in several markets within the city.
Tourist destination
Aside from its exports, Davao City has been cited as a premier tourist destination. Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, tourism receipts in Davao City amounted to over P51 billion in 2019, generated from over 2.34 million arrivals. This was almost double the amount of tourism receipts the city received only four years prior in 2015, which amounted to P26.2 billion.
As of 2023, Davao City has been gearing to regain its position as a major tourist destination, particularly for the meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) market. As the host for the three-day MICECon in 2023, Davao City served as “a shining example of the country’s ‘bleisure’ destinations with its varied cultural and entertainment offerings for business travelers”. Bleisure refers to a type of travel that combines business and leisure.
Investment-ready
Davao City has also sought to invest in property development to help boost its local economy.
In September 2023, John Carlo Tria, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., said that in the wake of the pandemic, the city was primed for small-scale investors to set up shop with the availability of “investment-ready” properties such as mixed townships, vertical property developments, and high-rise office condominiums within the area.
“We had a lot of experiences when we brought investors to a property and all they could see was coconut groves,” said Tria. “Now, they don’t have to wait for the building to be constructed, they can easily set up shop.”
