A NEW PLAYER in the BIMP-EAGA sub-regional cooperation shipping service started its trial sail of the Davao-General Santos-Bitung (DGB) sea route early this week, the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said in a statement on Wednesday. According to the statement, Manila-based company Reefer Pilipinas Express Line will be utilizing a conventional type vessel with load capacity up of to 290 TEU containers, and 10,000 loose cargoes. BIMP-EAGA stands for Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area, a sub-regional cooperation formed in 1994 among the said member-countries. “We found the right model to support the BIMP-EAGA trade, and are now expanding it to the larger ASEAN with the inclusion of Ho Chi Minh city to our route plan,” said Felix Ishizuka, Reefer Filipinas CEO, adding that their primary goal is to “help create more trading activities in the sub-region by providing the right service.” For his part, MinDA Deputy Executive Director Romeo Montenegro said, “It can be recalled that the first vessel used for the route was too large at 500 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) capacity. We had to look for a more smaller vessel to continue the operation of the DGB route.” Malou Monteverde, former president of Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCCII) and one of the primary proponents of the sea route, said, “We look forward to the upcoming resurgence of the DGB route. This will strengthen our Philippines and Indonesia trading blocs especially with the support of the BIMP-EAGA and ASEAN.”

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