Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Air linkages to accelerate development of Zamboanga By Ulysses Israel
THE City of Zamboanga along with Davao City will gain greater accessibility and mobility in the movement of people and goods in the sub-region of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines - East Asean Growth Area (Bimp-Eaga), accelerating its economic development.
This was achieved with the recent signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Expansion of Air Linkages by the Transport Ministers of Bimp during the 3rd Bimp-Eaga Summit held in Cebu City last January 12.
Included in the MOU is the granting of fifth freedom traffic rights for passengers and cargo services in the airports of Seri Bagawan, Brunei Darussalam; Balikpapan and Pontianak in Indonesia; Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, Malaysia; and Davao City and Zamboanga City in the Philippines.
The fifth freedom traffic rights refer to the privilege to bring passengers and cargo from one country to another other than the home country of the airline. This means Eaga airlines can now serve three points at one time contrary to the previous arrangements of two points or bilateral.
It is hoped to address the low load factor making the airlines operations more viable and sustainable according to Karl Catalan, senior economic specialist of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco).
Under this scheme, an airline in Bimp-Eaga can for instance, fly Zamboanga City-Sandakan-Brunei route.
Milva Lunod, also of Medco said Bimp-Eaga summit leaders cited the progress achieved in the implementation of the Bimp-Eaga Roadmap to Development 2006-2010. She was one of the resource persons during the 5th Zamboanga City CIQS Consultative Council Meeting held in this city on Tuesday.
The gains achieved are the following: The initiatives to facilitate the accelerated implementation of the flagship projects, completion of the Bimp-Eaga database on cross-border trade, investment and tourism, preparation of the energy action plan, and forging of stronger partnership with development partners and internation development agencies.
The joint statement issued by the summit leaders stated that they support the adoption of a sub-regional multilateral or bilateral interstate transport and transit transport agreements in order to facilitate the cross-border movement of people and goods.
The Transport Ministers have been tasked to implement measures towards promoting an efficient and integrated sea transportation system in the sub-region, which would link the focus areas as well as improving the maritime transport infrastructure facilities.
They also vowed to strengthen their marketing programs and to aggressively promote the sub-region as a single tourism destination.
The sub-region countries will establish one-stop CIQS (custom, immigration, quarantine and security) facilities at designated entry points.
Another area of concern tackled was the establishment of network of protected areas, productive forests that will maintain forest connectivity and ensures sustainable land use practices.
Bimp-Eaga will become the test-bed for accelerating the implementation of relevant Asean agreements to contribute towards acceleration of Association of Southeast Asian Nations economic integration.
