Monday, October 06, 2008 BOI eyes Bora investors By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE Board of Investments (BOI) in Mindanao is planning to tap investors in Boracay to consider Pujada Island in Mati, Davao Oriental as a "good destination" for beach operations.
In an interview last week, Gil Dureza, BOI chief for Mindanao, told Sun.Star that they are preparing to form a small team with the Department of Tourism (DOT)-Southern Mindanao to run a road show in Aklan to promote tourism development efforts in Mati, particularly the Pujada Island, which remained to be untapped.
"Pujada Island has a long stretch of white sand beaches, the quality of sand can be compared to Boracay. The area needs to be developed, so there's a need to tap investors in Boracay to consider the place for investment," Dureza said.
Dureza added that at present, only four to six small beaches are operating on the island.
"We will also coordinate with the DTI provincial director in Davao Oriental to know who are the owners of the beach resorts and maybe convince them to also offer some areas on the island to investors," Dureza said.
"The strategy is to invite one big and branded company to invest in the area and the rest will follow," he said.
Dureza said the island, when developed, could not only bring improvement to the tourism industry of Mati, but can create a lot of jobs as well.
