Cebu business groups create alliance to protect key sectors

Metro Cebu’s major business groups are moving to forge a stronger private-sector bloc aimed at safeguarding the province’s key growth engines, as local industries face rising competitive pressures and the threat of natural disruptions.

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The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) together with the chambers of Mandaue, Talisay and Lapu-Lapu, met this week to align a unified strategy that would lock in long-term reforms and reinforce Cebu’s most critical industry ecosystems.

The initiative seeks closer coordination on investments, manufacturing, tourism, agriculture and disaster-response capacities—areas viewed as essential to sustaining Cebu’s economic momentum.

“This is a united initiative. The private sector has to bond together,” CCCI president Jay Yuvallos said. “We cannot remain fragmented if we want Cebu to protect and strengthen its industry ecosystems.”

The coalition of chambers are studying ecosystem-based development models used in Thailand and Malaysia, where government and industry jointly build clusters of suppliers, training institutions and support services around strategic sectors.