Specialization Vs. Diversification of a City’s Industry: A Case Study on Davao City’s Agriculture and Business Process Outsourcing economy
Introduction With a thrust to enhance its position as an economic magnate in the Southern Philippines, there has been debate on the issue wether Davao City government and private sector broaden its economy and identify itself towards a different sector or maintain being an agricultural-based economy alone. Initiatives were taken for Davao City to take advantage of the business process outsourcing (BPO) or call center business opportunities as these give the city an edge in a global scale . This paper will argue that a diverse industry for a city’s economy is more stable than a specialized one. In this case, Davao City should be open to new industries that are brought about by technology and global modernization and this is on the contemporary industry of BPOs and technology service. It may seem that investing on this may be a volatile risk for an agriculture-known city, but keeping the City’s diverse industry strong and open to new development in its own respective ways will make the economy more progressing and increase potential for growth (Jacobs, 1969). The proponent shall base its position that a diverse industry is favorable than specializing, by looking at cases with similar economic stance on the two different industry scenario and on theories of related studies on such cases.
Background The Davao Region and the neighboring provinces located in Southern Mindanao (Figure 1) are well known for its diverse culture and abundant natural resources. Towns and municipalities have limited capabilities of urbanizing their places mainly due to political turmoil, cultural conflicts and minimal educated population (Miller, 2009). Therefore these regional areas depend largely on
