Central Visayas Ranks 4th in Highest Number of Establishments in Philippines

Central Visayas (CV) ranks fourth in the highest number of establishments in the country based on the 2014 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) in a Data Dissemination Forum held recently by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) here.

Regional Director Ariel Florendo PSA-Negros Island Region (NIR) reported that CV or Region 7 comprised 8.4 percent of the total number of establishments or around 3,000 from the total 35,000 establishments in the Philippines.

In the gathering of stakeholders which include the business sector, policy makers, local planners, government sector among others, Florendo said that the data forum aims for stakeholders “to appreciate the data that they can use it in whatever means especially the 2014 Survey on Tourism Establishments in the Philippines (STEP) which is a big help because tourism is one of the factors in the development in the province as well as in the country.”

Region7 had around 400,000 workers or 9.7 percent out of 4 milion workers in the country.

However, Florendo said the National Capital Region (NCR), where most of the establishments are located, recorded the highest employment at almost 2 million, and among the regions, the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had the least number of workers at 9,000.

It is noted that Region 7 generated an income about P700 billion and maintained its ranking among the top 5 regions in the country in terms of income generation.

NCR which produced the highest income of about P6,000 billion accounted for the lion’s share of nearly 50.0 percent of the total income, while ARMM produced the lowest income with around P6 billion, said Florendo.

When asked why the dissemination of results is quite late, Florendo explained that the 2014 is the reference period which is from January to December of 2014 but the activity where the distribution of the questionnaires and the collection of data was done at 2015.

The process also took time, from the distribution of questionnaires, sample of the establishment, after which the collection of data with manual and machine processing, data analysis, evaluation, verification, all of which led to the delay in the releasing of the results.

“However, under EO 352, it is stated that the release of statistical data should be after two years of the reference period and coupled with the merger of agencies from NSO, NCB, BAS and BLESS to PSA and during that period PSA had also the Census of Population, that’s the reason why it’s a little bit late,” added Florendo.

For 2014 results, Negros Oriental still included in Region 7 but for the 2016, NIR is already included in the 18 regions.

The PSA official said the results for 2016, where NIR is included, will be released in a regional and national forum which will be done in October 2018.

ASPBI is a yearly survey of PSA that intends to provide information on the levels, structure, performance, and trends of economic activities of the formal sector in the entire country.

It also gathers data on employment, compensation, income, expense, total assets, capital expenditures and inventories, and generate indicators from these variables. (jct/PIA7-Negros oriental)