WHILE the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) aims to establish their catalytic or banner projects in Mindanao before the end of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, they said they still lack investors especially for the agro-economic zones (AEZs).
MinDA said they have 12 catalytic programs which include the Trans-Mindanao High-Speed Railway System, AEZs, and other infrastructure projects.
MinDA Development Division chief Joan Barrera said during the Habi at Kape media forum on Wednesday, March 20, the government is still trying to attract more investors as the project will be done through a public-private partnership scheme.
“Actually, we are working with the local government units (LGUs) and we are trying to market the seven agro-economic zones to our private sector and we hope that it will be establish within the next three years,” Barrera said.
“Ang challenge lang talaga natin is to find private sectors who will partner with us in developing these AEZa. We hope that we could really find some more investors,” she added.
The prioritized seven pilot AEZs will be located in Basilan, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao in the Bangsamoro Region; Agusan del Sur in Caraga Region; and Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay in the Zamboanga Peninsula.
She said that out of seven, only one investor has shown interest to partner with Minda and it could not be disclosed yet.
“So far, we did already our conceptual framework. There are already areas na we are confident that they have areas available. So far for the LGUs, wala kaming problem with regard to the land,” she said.
“For AEZs, we would like to encourage our partners, DTI, DA, and Neda to continue partnering with us. And we hope that we can get more interested investors,” Barrera said, adding that they are also working on the eco-zones map to be presented to investors.
MinDA showed the AEZ model which include the agro-trading centers as support of AEZs and will adopt and integrated area development approach.