Cebu registers over 45K business firms last year

CEBU, Philippines - With more than 45,000 business establishments identified last year, Cebu topped all provinces outside the National Capital Region (NCR) with the most number of business firms.

This was according to the final result on the update of the list of establishments in the country for 2012 released yesterday by the National Statistics Office.

Joining Cebu in the top 10 provinces with the most number of business establishments were Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Bulacan, Davao del Sur, Pangasinan, Pampanga, Batangas and Nueva Ecija.

The dominant sectors in the top 10 provinces were wholesale and retail trade for repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, accommodation and food service activities and manufacturing.

However, despite of the observed growth in other regions of the country, the NCR still continued to be the hub of Philippine business and industry with a total of 212,408 establishments or 22.5 percent of the total number of establishments in 2012.

The two regions adjacent to NCR, namely Calabarzon and Central Luzon, had the next biggest count with 145,518 (15.4 percent) and 105,580 (11.2 percent) establishments, respectively. 

The NSO said the total number of establishments in the country neared the one million mark last year after it hit the 945,000-level. It said these establishments employed 7.81 million Filipinos across the country.

Majority of the establishments in 2012 were owned by single proprietors as indicated by the 82.6 percent share of single proprietorship in the distribution of establishments by legal organization.

More than 14 percent or 132,795 establishments were owned by stock corporations, of which, 60,735 or 45.7 percent were located in NCR. 

Combined medium and large establishments comprised less than one percent  of the total number of establishments.

About a quarter of the total employment was generated by wholesale and retail trade; and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles establishments.

Agriculture had the lowest total employment but highest in terms of average employment per establishment.

The 2012 update on the list of establishments aims to provide an updated list of establishments or enterprises with information on their characteristics; their distribution; information on business births and deaths and other business demographic indicators; as well as a list of emerging industries. (FREEMAN)