The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) have signed a pact to encourage concerned agencies to participate in promoting and developing economic zones within the island-region of Mindanao.
MinDA chairman Datu Hj. Abul Khayr Alonto said his agency “sees ecozone development as an imperative measure that will bolster inclusive socioeconomic growth in the region.” The memorandum of agreement was signed during the two-day Mindanao Ecozone Summit held in Davao on February 2 and 3.
He explained that MinDA and PEZA are looking at a holistic approach to ecozone development, in which agriculture and its component sectors such as fisheries and aquaculture play key roles in Mindanao’s overall development.
“If I am to envision the island-region’s development in the next 10 to 20 years, I see agriculture cooperatives and agri-based industries as the most prominent drivers of Mindanao’s economy,” the MinDA chairman said.
He stressed that agri-based cooperatives have the capacity to improve the lives of smallholder farmers and their families.
“Agriculture cooperatives after all are the pillars of development and food security,” he said.
A target area for ecozone development is Tawi-Tawi, with its high potential for agriculture and aquaculture development, particularly seaweed.
“With the recent guidance from the President, we will start working on the dream of developing Tawi-Tawi into the next Singapore, where investors and tourists could converge to conduct business as well as leisure [activities] in the islands. This may seem like a dream, but dreams are the seeds of realities,” Alonto explained.
With the influx of agri-based ecozones, Alonto hopes to strike a “balance between large plantation and smallholder farming,” with farmers fully reaping the long-term benefits.
As of April 2016, there are 81 identified economic zones in the island-region covering various sectors such as agro-industry, manufacturing, tourism, and information technology.
MinDA is also looking to establish key infrastructure and connectivity networks, as they will play a vital role in the seamless flow of economic activities in the proposed ecozones.
“Infrastructure and connectivity are prerequisites for these ecozones to flourish,” Alonto noted.
Through the Mindanao Development Corridors, which is a spatial approach to development, MinDA will work with other agencies to make sure all interregional roads, gateway ports, and airports, as well as other logistic facilities, are in place.
Some of the early gains of this strategy include the scheduled launch in April of the Davao-Gensan-Bitung shipping route, which will expedite travel time for goods between Indonesia and the Philippines from five weeks down to three days.
READ: Davao City-GenSan-Bitung service ready for April 28 launch
“We are counting on this new route to entice more locators in our Economic Zones, especially from our neighbors in the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area and the larger ASEAN market,” Alonto added.
Another route eyed under the ASEAN Roll-on/Roll-off initiative is the Tawi-Tawi–Tarakan (Indonesia) shipping route.
The program is also looking at developing the Mindanao Railway Project, a trans-regional, high-speed railway system linking all key cities in the island-region. The project was recently identified by the national government as one of the top priority programs for Mindanao.
Image courtesy of adamr at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
