ANCHORED on its 10-point Best People Agenda, Davao del Norte seeks to step up its projects for sustainable growth and development to benefit the generations to come.
"As we move forward with our Best People Development Agenda we want to expand our set goals to fast track sustainable change," Davao del Norte Governor Anthony G. Del Rosario said during his recent State of the Province Address.
Best People stands for Balanced ecology, Enhanced agri-aquaculture, Sustainable tourism, Transformative leadership, Public infrastructure, Education and sports, Optimum health and social services, Public-private partnership, Link to the world, and Employment and livelihood opportunities.
Under Balanced Ecology, Del Rosario said after planting 353.5 hectares of forest trees, fruit trees, and bamboo in 2017, they are now setting their focus to tree growing.
Del Rosario said they are setting their eyes on a program wherein they will give monetary incentives to community tree growers to care for the planted trees.
For the Enhanced agri-aquaculture, the provincial government is looking into enrolling the farmers in a Crop Insurance Program.
"Para ma-protektahan ug aron adunay peace of mind ang mga farmers sa higayon nga adunay kalamidad. (This will protect them and give them a peace of mind when calamity hits their farmlands)," he said.
Under the Sustainable Tourism Agenda, Del Rosario said through the Davao del Norte Learning Institute (DNLI)-Davao Del Norte State College (DNSC) partnership they will be offering a Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management to employees and elected officials of local government units in the province.
Meanwhile, for the Transformative leadership agenda, Del Rosario is directing the Provincial Human Resource Management Office to look for ways and draft guidelines to provide more monetary incentives for the Best Performing employees over and above the regular bonuses.
For its Public Infrastructure agenda, the provincial government will continue to implement its Community-Based Road Maintenance Contracting wherein it tapped associations of laborers in the different barangays to maintain the roads in their areas.
Del Rosario said they are looking into also tapping the same partners in maintaining other infrastructure projects of the provincial government.
"We can do this if we will train them to be a certified carpenters, certified electricians, certified plumber, certified mason and other related skills," he said, adding that they will seek help from Tesda, Department of Labor and Employment, Provincial Engineer’s Office, and the Employment and Workforce Development Division under the Provincial Administrator’s Office.
For education and sports, the provincial government will amend the omnibus scholarship ordinance to provide financial assistance even to students who are enrolled in private schools.
"Atong gitahasan ang Provincial Youth and Sports Development Office (PYSDO) nga magbuhat pa ug daghang programa aron ma-train ug maayo atong mga kabatan-onan sa natad sa sports, arts apil na sa academics, labaw na sa mathematics, science, English, Engineering, Robotics ug Information Technology (We are directing our PYSDO to develop programs that will train and improve our youths' on sports, arts, and academics, especially on mathematics, science, English, engineering, robotics, and information technology)," Del Rosario said.
Under the Optimum Health and social services agenda, the provincial government seeks to conduct its Festival Services to twice or thrice a month from once a month. The event is an activity organized by the government to bring basic government services to its constituents.
"For the Public-private partnership agenda, we will revisit the Investment and Incentive Code to provide more incentives to attract investors coming in the province," Del Rosario said, adding that he is asking the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Members to amend the code as soon as possible.
Under the Link to the world, the provincial government's agenda on communications, they are looking into drafting the Davao Del Norte Media Safety and Welfare Council.
"We are also committed to upgrade our existing TV Station-PTV DavNor 48 and our radio station- Radyo 911 to make sure that every dabaonon is a well-informed Dabaonon," Del Rosario said.
Lastly, under the Employment and livelihood opportunities agenda, the provincial government seeks to organize more job and investment fairs to promote employment and livelihood opportunities.
"In this expansive vision we will take development to the next level. Dili lang kita makuntento sa pagbuhat sa naandan na, apan kinahanglan labwan pa nato kining atong mga nabuhat hangtod makab-ot nato ang kalambuan nga atong gipangandoy (Let us not be contented as to where we are right now; rather we should strive to become better to be able to reach the sustainable development that we are seeking)," Del Rosario said.