Baku:Mindanao Mindanao has emerged as a peaceful, stable, and investment-ready island, with government leaders highlighting strong economic growth, improving governance, and expanding investment opportunities as key drivers of the region's next phase of development.
According to Philippines News Agency, during the Mindanao Development Forum (MDF) 2026, Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Secretary Leo Tereso Magno emphasized that the debate on whether peace should precede development has been resolved. Magno noted that peace now prevails across Mindanao, fostering conditions for sustained economic progress.
Magno reported that Mindanao's economy grew by 4.69 percent in 2025, surpassing the national growth rate of 4.4 percent. Five of the island's six regions ranked among the country's ten fastest-growing economies, with Caraga leading at 5.7 percent growth. The Davao Region posted a 5.1 percent growth rate, maintaining a gross regional domestic product (GRDP) exceeding PHP1 trillion for the third consecutive year. Northern Mindanao also sustained its trillion-peso economy with 4.9 percent growth, while the Zamboanga Peninsula and SOCCSKSARGEN showed steady expansion in services, agriculture, agribusiness, and manufacturing sectors.
Magno highlighted the significant transformation in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which recorded a 5.0 percent growth rate in 2025, ranking as the sixth fastest-growing region nationwide. The poverty incidence among families in BARMM declined from 28 percent in 2021 to 23.5 percent in 2023, with investment registrations on the rise. The Bangsamoro Board of Investments approved PHP5 billion worth of projects in 2025, generating over 2,000 jobs, and by April this year, registered investments reached PHP5.1 billion, creating more than 2,500 jobs.
Magno stated that with peace and stability in place, along with reforms for easier and more predictable investments, Mindanao now stands at the forefront of the nation's growth. He stressed the island's strategic location within the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), emphasizing the foundations of peace and governance laid down to translate these gains into jobs, investments, and improved living standards for over 27 million Mindanaoans.
The MDF 2026 is envisioned as a high-level development and investment platform, bringing together national and local government units, BARMM, the private sector, financial institutions, development partners, academia, civil society, and other stakeholders from across Mindanao. The two-day forum will feature high-level discussions on Mindanao's competitiveness, investment and financing landscape, public-private partnerships (PPPs), emerging opportunities, agriculture and agribusiness, energy and infrastructure, and BARMM's economic development, among other priority sectors. It will also include an investment and partnership marketplace designed to facilitate business matching, investment pitching, and engagements among local government units, BARMM, investors, businesses, and development partners.
