Beyond peace, infrastructure key to drawing investment to ARMM

From Business World (Mar 13): Beyond peace, infrastructure key to drawing investment to ARMM

Business groups in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), in a meeting with Swiss officials led by Ambassador to the Philippines Andrea Reichlin last week, emphasized the need for infrastructure development alongside sustaining peace to attract more investment in the region.

The meeting, held at the ARMM-Regional Board of Investments (RBOI) office in Cotabato City, was attended by representatives of the Metro Cotabato Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Muslim Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Kutawato, and the Bangsamoro Business Club, led by the Promotion of Investment Sustainability Organization (PISO), which has members from the private sector as well as government representatives.

 

Edgar L. Bullecer, co-lead convenor of PISO, told BusinessWorld it is about time that foreign companies took notice of the investment potentials of the region.

 

There are an estimated 60 Swiss companies operating in the Philippines, including food firm Nestlé. One of the three factories of Nestlé Philippines, Inc., a joint venture between Nestlé S.A. and San Miguel Corp., is located in Cagayan de Oro City in Northern Mindanao.

“We just hope that the government will support the call of the business sector to ensure that the region is ready for investments by setting up necessary infrastructure projects for its continued development,” said Mr. Bullecer, senior vice president of the Unifrutti Group of Companies, which is investing P3.7 billion to expand banana farms in Maguindanao province.

 

ARMM Governor Mujiv S. Hataman, for his part, said the regional government is continuously implementing priority projects that are intended to boost the agriculture and fisheries sector.

A P10.1-billion budget for this year has been approved for roads, bridges, seaports and other infrastructure to ease the movement of agriculture products and other goods in the region.

“The region’s record of governance, plus its proximity and economic links to a number of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, makes the ARMM an ideal economic partner,” Mr. Hataman said in an e-mail to BusinessWorld.

He added that interest among foreign investors is a result of “the positive developments brought about by reforms in the region these past few years, especially given our commitment to peace and security.”

In 2015, the ARMM-RBOI registered about P6.5 billion in new investment, the highest in the 25-year history of the region.

In January, a P1.3-billion oil palm plantation project in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao was registered by Gintong Agri, Inc.

Lawyer Ishak V. Mastura, RBOI chair and managing head, said the region and its people “are grateful to Switzerland for their active support to peace and development in the region,” particularly in sponsoring the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC).

The TJRC, created during the peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), will release a report this month on the issues of “dealing with the past” in the region.

The ARMM would have served as the core area of the new Bangsamoro region had the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law been passed in Congress. The proposed legislation stems from the peace agreement formally signed by the MILF and the government in 2014.

Bilateral trade between Switzerland and the Philippines in 2014 was valued at $557 million. The two countries recently concluded their 7th political consultations in Berne, the political capital of Switzerland, in preparation for the 2nd Session of the Philippine-Switzerland Joint Economic Commission scheduled in April this year.

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=beyond-peace-infrastructure-key-to-drawing-investment-to-armm&id=124430