Thursday, February 23, 2006
City 'confident' to attain 6-year development target
THE Economic Development Committee of the Regional Development Council in Southern Mindanao expressed optimism that the region would achieve its targets relative to the Davao Regional Development Plan for the years 2004 to 2010.
Southern Mindanao Department of Trade and Industry Regional Director Merly M. Cruz reported during a meeting on February 7 that the region has managed to attain 15 percent of the six-year targets for fresh investments, 26 percent of the target for export receipts, and 27 percent of the target for job generation.
Investments, exports, and jobs generated were identified key indicators for the performance of Davao Region's priority industry clusters, consisting of the banana, mango, coconut, seaweeds, wood, mining, eco-tourism, and information and communications technology industries.
The development committee organized the industry cluster teams, composed of industry players from both the government and the private sector, in April of 2005.
This approach was adopted as a key strategy under the Davao Regional Development Plan 2004 to 2010 with the view to harness the region's competitive advantages and explore the global market.
In 2005, banana maintained leadership in exports followed by mango, wood, seaweeds, and coconut industries.
The banana industry raked in a total of $713 million in export earnings for the region, which is 90 percent of the total export earnings of the eight industry clusters.
It also led in terms of investments and employment generation, providing work for 50 percent of the eight industries' total employment, and generating over 30 percent of the total investments.
Foreign destinations of banana included the European Union, US, Russia, China and Canada.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (February 23, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
