Lawmaker urges private sector to get involved in province’s development plan

by: Rachelle M. Nessia

(Dumaguete City, October 20, 2010) --- Second District Cong. George P. Arnaiz has appealed to key stakeholders from the local private and government organizations to be involved in formulating local development plans from provincial level down to the barangay level.

Arnaiz, speaking during the Fourth Buglas Development Corporation Forum conducted by the First Buglas Foundation, said that the private sector has much to offer in developing strategies that will propel the province and the Central Visayas region “to attain higher productivity that will bring better lives to our people.”

“Tell us what you need, what policies do you require?” Arnaiz said before an audience teeming with businessmen, non-government organization representatives, mayors, local government unit planners, and agriculturists.

Arnaiz told the private sector representatives that the promotion of people participation is a mandate under the Local Government Code “which you can exercise through the different local development councils.”

Arnaiz was one of a panel of speakers who were invited to talk during in the forum with the aim of discussing strategies to transform the province’s economy through agricultural modernization, communications access and tourism development.

In his speech, the congressman noted that devolution has played a key role in the economic success of the region and the province, citing Negros Oriental’s Award for Continuing Excellence, which is the top recognition in the Gawad Galing Pook, as an example. “We have displayed excellence in fields where other local government units have feared to tread, such as agriculture, primary healthcare and coastal resource management,” said Arnaiz.

The province’s good economic performance echoes that of the region as Arnaiz noted that this year’s first quarter economic indicators show that Central Visayas has continued to achieve significant economic growth particularly in the region’s major industries – tourism, transportation, information technology and business process outsourcing and construction.

Statistics show that the tourism industry registered a 3.45 percent increase in visitor arrivals during the first three months of this year while the region’s shipping sector saw increased activities in seaports, posting double-digit growths in the number of shipcalls, passenger volume and cargo traffic. (PIA/RMN)
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