Tuesday, March 20, 2007 DTI-Lanao Sur cites econ gains
DEPARTMENT of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Lanao del Sur Provincial Director Sultan Cabili Arobinto said his office attributes the decline in the country's debt to the cooperation of local businessmen in pushing forward economic growth in the countryside.
Arobinto said the DTI-Lanao del Sur has significantly improved its capital investment program for the first two months by exceeding its target by P374,000 as well as generating 392 jobs for the same period.
This came about even as the regional National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) cited what they called as "social payback projects."
Neda-Northern Mindanao Director Myra Balandra said financial support was made available to various productive activities in the region, last year, as some P196.959 million was released by Quedancor to 4,703 beneficiaries under its different loan programs to augment the income of farmers and fisherfolks.
The Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) also released P2.185 billion in various loans under the Small Farmers/Fisherfolks Loan facility while the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) provided financial support to different sectoral projects, releasing P300 million for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and agribusiness projects, P35 million for construction of school buildings, P40 million for transportation networks and P539.6 million for water projects.
Likewise, the cooperative sector have also become a strong conduit for financing as 68 percent out of 1,176 operating cooperatives were engaged in micro-financing with a volume of business at P4.121 billion.
A total of P5.9 billion worth of economic activities that brought about 4,806 jobs was generated by the operating cooperatives all over the region and that out of the top 100 cooperatives nationwide, 11 are from Northern Mindanao.
Meanwhile, the region's science and technology sector continued to make significant impact regionwide with a total of 58 firms given direct assistance under the technology transfer and commercialization program of the Department of Science and Technology (Dost).
About P2.616 million in direct investment, with 32 percent equity from the client cooperators who are mostly from the private sector were generated by technology transfer alone resulting in the employment of about 6,544 man-months and a gross revenue of P124.598 million.
Again, some 1,063 trainees were benefited from 36 trainings conducted by Dost while scholarships were provided to 127 qualifiers or 9.3 percent of the 1,371 examinees.
Also, last year, the Department of Education (DepEd) constructed 19 classrooms and repaired 1,712 others in the elementary level while it constructed 24 classrooms and repaired 252 others in the secondary level.
"Aside from government funds, some classrooms were funded by private initiatives such as the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) through the "Classroom Galing sa Mamamayang Filipino Abroad with Camiguin, Lanao del Norte and Misamis Oriental as recipients.
Various programs were implemented for out-of-school youths and adults like the Alternative Learning Program (ALP), Basic Literacy Program (BLP) and the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), among others.
As of year-end, over P29 million was disbursed by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) out of P35million scholarship funds for the region that benefited more than 5,000 students regionwide.
Likewise, placement and referrals were pursued to ensure employment and productivity among the 6,170 TVET graduates of the region," Balandra added. (Trends)
