Thursday, February 14, 2008 Private sector remains upbeat on Eaga this year
THE private sector remains positive on recent developments in the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) as it poised for a stronger participation in accelerating trade, tourism, and investments in the growth area.
Antonio Santos, executive chairman of the BIMP-Eaga Business Council (BEBC), said in a forum in Davao City recently that an increased private sector and stakeholder participation in the growth area is targeted as a major deliverable under the BIMP-Eaga institutional mechanism review that shall be undertaken this year.
The mechanism review will be conducted to strengthen coordination within the BIMP-Eaga institutional framework that consists of the country ministers and senior officials, working groups, development clusters, national secretariats, BIMP-Eaga Business Council (BEBC), and the BIMP-Eaga Facilitation Center (BIMP-FC).
The review also aims to establish the link with new key players such as the local government units and the BIMP-Eaga Media and Communicators Association (Bemca).
The review will consider benchmarking from other regional economic grouping structures.
"We hope to engage more the private sector this year in the different working groups and clusters in the BIMP-Eaga and we hope that the government would be able to extend assistance," Santos said.
He added that the Eaga private sector through the BEBC must be more involved in the development of the sub-region now that the Philippine government is sustaining efforts to enhance inter-trade relations with its Eaga counterparts and expand trading ties with external markets such as China and the Middle East.
As the fifth country member of the BIMP-Eaga, BEBC has been actively involved in policy advocacy, business development services such as support to Eaga-wide marketing events, business matching, information dissemination and business networking activities.
"While we at the government are clearing the path towards a flourishing trade and investments, I believe that BIMP-Eaga will become more a private sector-led undertaking in the long term and therefore needs a stronger private sector participation that shall ensure implementation and sustainability of doable investments," said Undersecretary Virgilio Leyretana, chair of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco), the Philippine Coordinating Office for BIMP-Eaga.
The BIMP-Eaga mechanism review is a major target identified in the 2008 BIMP-Eaga Strategic Plan crafted during the BIMP-Eaga Strategic Planning Meeting held last month in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia wherein BIMP-Eaga stakeholders from the government and private sector set strategic and doable actions on how to make BIMP-Eaga a single production base and eco-tourism destination by 2015.
Santos also reported that they will be looking into the status of the project-matching activities initiated during the first ever BIMP-Eaga Investment Conference (BIMP-Icon) held October last year. The BIMP-Icon generated a total of 40 business projects, majority of which are currently wanting for financial assistance.
However, he said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is already completing the second phase of its study on establishing a Private Sector Development Fund, a financing facility that seeks to support enterprise and business development in BIMP-Eaga.
