Friday, November 30, 2007 Talks needed to boost RP, Indon backdoor trade ties By Edwin G. Espejo
TAHUNA, Indonesia -- Sarangani Governor Miguel Rene Dominguez on Wednesday agreed that more formal talks are needed to accelerate trade and commerce between the neighboring provinces and cities of the southern Philippines and Indonesia.
Dominguez joined the Philippine delegation that arrived in Tahuna City for trade talks and to witness the culmination of the three-day joint border patrol exercise between the two neighboring Southeast Asian countries.
Dominguez however said local governments from both neighboring countries should move for less government interference for trade and commerce to flourish in the area.
"We should start looking beyond our borders for the development of our region. And lesser bureaucracy and red tape would enhance trade and commerce between our two countries," Dominguez said in his address during the formal talks between the Philippine delegation and government and military officials of North Sulawesi province of Indonesia.
Dominguez said it was high time to put into reality the memorandum of understanding signed between Sarangani province and the Tahuna City early this year.
It was the second visit of Dominguez to the island this year.
He earlier headed a trade mission from the province in January this year where the local governments of the Tahuna and Sarangani signed a memorandum of understanding to boost trade ties between the two neighboring areas.
His counterpart, North Sulawesi Governor S. M. Sarundayang earlier said relations between the two regions of Indonesia and the Philippines should be expanded into sisterhood agreements to give more substance and legal framework to their trade and commerce activities.
"We would like to pursue certain purpose we established as early a 1994," Sarundajang said.
The Philippines and Indonesia are part of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asia Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) that was created in 1994.
The two countries share territorial borders in the international waters that separate Mindanao and the North Sulawesi province of Indonesia.
Tahuna City is just 35 minutes by plane from General Santos City and eight hours by boat.
