PAVIA: Industrial Boom Town of Iloilo and Western Visayas
(Baltazar J. Gumana, MPDC)
The only municipality in the province of Iloilo and throughout Western Visayas which has the most number of industrial establishments… PAVIA. Presently, Pavia has 39 manufacturing establishment producing various products intended for the domestic and export markets. Among the important products are farm implements, milled rice, poultry and livestock feeds, noddles, softdrinks, dressed chicken, cooking oil, furnitures, concrete products, polyurethane foam, and industrial and medical gases.
Residents and non resident industrialists and investors started to establish manufacturing plants in the early 1980′s. The magnetic attractions located in Pavia involved such factors as strategic location and nearness to the City of Iloilo, good road network, available communications and in-place amenities and support facilities.
Due to the development going on during that period, the provincial government of Iloilo identified the municipality of Pavia as the provincial industrial location.
To pursue a vigorous campaign in promoting the municipality as such, the Sangguniang Bayan passed SB Resolution 1552 in 1988. Said resolution offered tax moratorium to industrial investors. Promotional flyers then were prepared identifying Pavia as an industrial community.
In 1990, the municipality was officially declared as the Regional Agro-Industrial Center (RAIC) of Western Visayas. The RAIC is the centerpiece component of the Panay-Negros Agro-Industrial Special Development Project (PANAI-SDP) under the Philippines Aid Program. The project is now named Panay-Guimaras-Negros Agro-Industrial Development Project.
Today, Pavia is home to a number of prestigious manufacturing establishments. Among the biggest investors/ locators are; Coca-Cola Bottlers, Phils., Vitarich Corporation, Pryce Gases, Inc. Mandaue Foam Industries, Panay Tropical Grains Milling Corp., Jaspe Light Steel Industries, Visayas Coco Development Corporation, New Panay Agri-Ventures Development Inc., Pavia Feed Mill and are complimented by numerous small cottage industries.
