Wednesday, August 08, 2007 Statistics board says joint efforts needed to accelerate economic growth By Bong Garcia
AN OFFICIAL of the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) enjoins all concerned government agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) to join efforts towards balancing the economic growth of the region.
NSCB regional head Mewchun Pamaran said there’s a need for a balanced economic growth among the different sectors like the construction, mining and others “so that anything happen to the other sectors would not affect the entire region’s economic growth.”
“Everybody has to join force. There should be a synergy among them to keep the region’s economy afloat,” Pamaran said.
NSCB studies showed that the region’s economy registered a decelerated growth of 2.1 percent in 2006 from 6.9 percent in 2005.
This was largely due to the substantial decrease of production in agriculture and fishery (AFF) sectors.
The AFF, accounting for 49.4 percent of the region’s total output, contracted to a negative 1.3 percent in 2006 from a high growth of 8.5 percent in 2005 as the production of palay, corn, fishery, and livestock, the major contributors to the AFF, slumped.
The weak performance was attributed to the change in the cropping pattern, repair and rehabilitation of irrigation system in the province of Zamboanga del Sur and the flash floods brought by a devastating typhoon that hit the region during the last quarter of 2006.
Pamaran said the economy of the region is reliant on the agricultural sector, citing Zamboanga Peninsula as an agriculture-base economy.
“Anything happens to our agriculture sector, the entire economy of the region is affected,” she said.
On the other hand, the NSCB study showed that the forestry sector bounced from a negative 68.3 percent in 2005 to 126.7 percent in 2006.
The services sector, which accounted for 34.8 percent of the regional economy, posted a slower growth at 4.9 percent in 2006 from 5.2 percent in 2005.
This was due to the decline in the sectors of transportation, communication and storage (TCS), trade and finance.
Meanwhile, other sub-sectors like private and government services showed improved performances with 5.2 percent and 4.8 percent growths in 2006 from 4.8 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively, in 2005.
Ownership dwelling and real estate (ODRE) likewise accelerated from 2.5 percent in 2005 to 4.8 percent in 2006.
The industry sector, which contributed 15.8 percent to the region’s output, posted an accelerated growth of 7.1 percent in 2006 from 5.4 percent in 2005.
The turnaround of construction from a negative 4.6 percent in 2005 to 5.3 percent in 2006 was propelled by the significant increase in public construction.
However, other sectors like manufacturing slowed down from 8.5 percent in 2005 to 7.5 percent in 2006; electricity and water from 9.6 percent in 2005 to 5.8 percent in 2006.
Mining and quarrying also decelerated from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 10.9 percent in 2006.
