WELCOME MESSAGE

It is with great pleasure to cordially welcome all of you to Silay City, the “Seat of arts, culture and eco-tourism in Western Visayas”. The Department of Tourism identified Silay as one of the 25 major tourist destinations in the country.

Our city is a picture of dynamism and progress. It is a city where the link to the past harmoniously merges with the development of the future. Its well preserved ancestral houses, collection of steam locomotives, rich cultural heritage, flavorful hometown delicacies, untamed forest and resolute people complement its thrust to become a leading winner destination in the region.

Traditionally, Silay is dependent to the sugar industry but Silay is ready for change and it is going to be a marvelous change. We have developed two-pronged development strategy: reconfiguring the city’s sugar industry to fit modern realities, and developing a technology-based light industry sector. We have a Master Development Plan which serves as a blueprint for the development of the dream of the Silaynons.

The centerpiece of the Master Plan is the development of a “new city” next to the key infrastructure feature – state-of-the-art domestic airport of international standard. This new metropolis is projected to grow around special economic zones and export processing points to be built in the airport’s periphery.

In our wish list is a light railway transit from our airport. This mass transport system is expected to ease traffic congestion in thoroughfares linking the airport to the province’s major arteries. Our supplemental infra projects include a flyover at the intersection of the national highway and the AIDSISA road to Brgy. Lantad.

A school has signified its intention to build a school in Hda. Bagacay as human resource base for the economic zones. Also in the drawing board are plans for a golf course, a horse race track, a car race track and a five-star hotel with 3,000 seat convention hall.

Our development programs are designed to be independent of political term limits. We expect 70% of Silay’s population to achieve middle-class status in thirty years.

While waiting for the best to come, the value of life will always occupy center stage and human growth and development will always be given a priority.

Mabuhay! Kari kamo sa Silay!