June 22, 2016
BY CARLA GOMEZ
The Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday pushed to make the Negros Island Region the a gri-agro-fisheries center of the country, at the eco nomic forum, "Sulong Pilipinas," held at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City, NOCCI president Edward Du said.
The Negros business groups cited NIR's vast fertile land, rich marine resources, abundant water, renewable energy, skilled labor, strategic location, and good infrastructure in their proposal, Du said.
“Sulong Pilipinas” was attended by more than 450 delegates representing the Philippines' major business organizations, who presented a 10-point action plan to President-elect Rodrigo Duterte yesterday.
Although Duterte said he still needs to thoroughly study the 10 point action plan, so far, he did not find anything objectionable to the proposals presented at the end of the two-day forum, Du said.
The 10-point recommendations are designed to help push inclusive growth and move things forward under Duterte's administration, Bacolod businessman Ed Alunan, who joined the forum, said.
Duterte also does not intend to pursue land reform since the beneficiaries revert the land back to the original owners or to others, Alunan added.
Alunan said the recommendations of the forum participants were for a comprehensive tax reform package, a National ID System, automation and streamlining of processes at the local and national levels to reduce processing time for permits and bottlenecks in land titling, improvement of Internet and telecom services, and support systems for farmers.
Also recommended were value-added responsible mining, development of regional industries, improvement of transport networks across the country, review of the Conditional Cash Transfer program to allow for long-term intervention that teaches the poor to catch fish rather than receive dole-outs, and reduction of bottlenecks in the Public Private Partnership and respect for contracts.*CPG
