Bayawan is located around 101 kilometers from the provincial capital Dumaguete City and near the provincial border with Negros Occidental. It is a coastal city with a land area of 699 km², the largest in the province. Mabinay bounds it to the north, Tanjay City and Bais City to the east, Sta. Catalina to the southeast and Basay to the west and it also shares a boundary with Kabankalan City of Negros Occidental on the northwest.

Bayawan City has two distinct climate seasons: the dry season, well pronounced in the months of January to May; and the wet season, in the months of June to December. Typhoons intermittently occur between May to December.

Geography

Bayawan City has a land area of 699.08 km², the largest in the province. This accounts for 13% of the province's land area. Mabinay bounds it to the north, Santa Catalina to the east, Tanjay City to the southeast, Basay to the west, and it also shares a boundary with Kabankalan City of Negros Occidental on the northwest. The coastline is 15 km west to east, with 7 coastal barangays.

Bayawan City is subdivided into three development zones:

* The urban area constitutes only 2.3% (15.73 km²) of the city's total area and contains the main institutional, commercial and central business district of the city. It functions as the main economic hub, while economic growth nodes are established in strategically located barangays in the hinterlands.

* The sub-urban area is about 14.7% (102.6 km²) of the total area and is set to contain the agro-industrial zones, industrial zones and human settlements. The existing industrial activity (lime plant), the establishment of saw mills, and the identified industrial zones in the area show the natural pattern of development. Residential zones are considered in the sub-urban area to provide settlements for the people in the commercial center and in the industrial zones.

* The rural area accounts for 83.1% of the total land area and is basically agricultural. However, some barangays are identified to contain a high level of commerce, trade and agro-processing industry being the economic growth nodes of the city. These growth nodes are singled out due to their strategic geographic location while other rural barangays are mainly agricultural production areas.

Bayawan City is politically subdivided into 28 barangays.

* Ali-is

* Banaybanay

* Banga

* Villasol (Bato)

* Boyco

* Bugay

* Cansumalig

* Dawis

* Kalamtukan

* Kalumboyan

* Malabugas

* Mandu-ao

* Maninihon

* Minaba

* Nangka

* Narra

* Pagatban

* Poblacion

* San Jose

* San Miguel

* San Roque

* Suba (Pob.)

* Tabuan

* Tayawan

* Tinago (Pob.)

* Ubos (Pob.)

* Villareal

* San Isidro

Demographics

As of the 2000 census, the city has a population of 101,391. Of this, 21,814 comprises the urban population. The population density is 146/km², which is manageable compared to other cities in the country. Within the next ten years, it is estimated that the population will reach 121,175 with an annual average growth rate of 2.9%, concentrated in the urban and sub-urban areas. The transformation of Bayawan into a city is deemed to bring rapid urbanization and inflow of commerce, trade and industry. This translates into tremendous pressure on the central district's social, economic and environmental systems in the near years.

Economy

Bayawan is more of the rural setting than urbanized with only 2.25% of its total land area as urban area. The city is basically agricultural and its economy sits on agricultural platform. Revenues from land farming, livestock production, aqua-culture activities and marine fishing are a major income contribution of the City. In 2000, the assessment of City Agriculture Office (CAO) indicated that agricultural production was valued at Php 2.3 Billion; 91.4% of which came from crop production, 7.9% from livestock production, and 0.7% from fisheries.

On a general scale, the City is not yet self-sufficient since its local revenue is only 12% of the total revenue and 88% comes from its Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) (Year 2000 Data).

The City however has several investment opportunities especially in the field of agro-industry and processing as well as in the processing of marine products. The vast agricultural resources and the LGU’s thrust on agricultural development opens avenues on investing on feed mills, palm oil mills, rice mills, corn mills, storage and other farming and post harvest facilities and equipment. Besides agri-industries, the trading and auction markets are already well established in the hinterland barangays especially in Dawis and Kalumboyan. Moreover, the fishery industry and aqua-culture also offers wide business opportunities especially in the establishment of the proposed fish port.

Another window for investors is in the transport system. With the opening of the Bayawan-Kabankalan Road Network, more transport facilities will be required. The City is already recognized as transport hub in South Negros, and will be enhanced further with improvement of the road network. Along with this, various other business opportunities may just come out and be needed in the near future.

Current employment in the City is considered very poor since there are still very limited employment opportunities. Mostly, the people in the city are engaged in self-employment activities such as farming, fishing, trading or buy & sell activities. Resident professionals in the City are in abundance however they are most often forced to migrate seeking employment opportunities. The City of Bayawan however is expected to reduce if not reverse this trend. In the two-year period of City, investor’s influx has been noticeably positive. As investors come in, the employment status should improve.

Transport

As of 2000 the city had 645.23 km of roads; 6.26% of which are National Roads; 19.41% are Provincial Roads; 1.79% are City Roads/Streets; and majority of which is 72.54% are Barangay Roads. Moreover, of the total road length only 5.75% are concrete roads and 2.81% asphalt roads. Of the unpaved roads, only 105 kilometers are gravel roads and the remaining 75.16% or 485 kilometers are earth fill roads. This translates that most of the roads especially the barangay roads in the upland barangays are not passable during bad weather conditions. The road situation of the city has been a very big burden for the residents in the hinterlands since delivery of basic services and supply of goods are inhibited almost always by it. More especially the farmers have to shoulder very high cost of transporting their products leaving them very small income.

The improvement of road infrastructure of the city especially the provincial road that connects the City Proper, Kalumboyan and Manduao to the City of Kabankalan in Negros Occidental is deemed to open up a new dimension in the economic and social activity of the city. Likewise, the improvement of the city's transport route to Mabinay and towards the Cities of Tanjay and Bais shall also bring about immense benefits for the city.

Source:

Wikipedia