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ZAMBOANGA
CITY—The
four governments in East Asean Growth Area (EAGA) and
the private sector are now moving to speed up
development in the identified priority areas following
the new direction pushed by EAGA state leaders on the
process of sub-regional cooperation at Cebu Summit last
month.
The move
to accelerate development was tackled, during which
high-level government officials of Brunei Darussalam,
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines (BIMP) met in
Kota Kinabalu early this month with business community
representatives.
The
Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo) announced
that the aim of the intersectoral meeting was to
streamline vital projects in the subregion.
MEDCo
said the focus was on setting targets for the 4th
BIMP-EAGA Summit to be held in November, and on defining
roles for government and business in key sectors
identified at the last
Summit:
agro-industry and natural resources, tourism, transport,
infrastructure, and information and communication
technology.
“Participants observed that there was close cooperation
by the different clusters and working groups during the
planning exercise,” said Saiful Anuar Hussen, chairman
of the event and principal assistant director of
Malaysia’s Economic Planning Unit.
The
meeting drew an unexpectedly large number of
participants, according to MEDCo.
“This
event addressed the leaders’ specific requests and
established clear deliverables for 2007 based on those
requests,” said Jacques Ferreira of the Asian
Development Bank (ADB).
ADB is
the regional development advisor for EAGA, and
co-organized the meeting with the BIMP-EAGA Facilitation
Center.
MEDCo
said the officials pointed out that commitment to
regional cooperation and continued improvements by their
governments to the enabling environment have made the
subregion increasingly attractive to investors.
“Business recognizes the seriousness of the four
governments in pushing EAGA,” said Zamboanga Peninsula
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) director
Nazrullah Manzur.
Brunei
Darussalam transport director Ang Kian Guan noted that
the private sector does its part by looking for
investment opportunities and highlighting how
governments can facilitate matters for them, according
to MEDCo.
“In the
transport sector, for example, we are able to make
[country-to-country] agreements to facilitate freedom of
movement. Meetings like these are crucial for EAGA
because the majority of business people here run small-
and medium-scale enterprises,” Roy Mandey said.
Mandey
represented the Indonesian country director of the
BIMP-EAGA Business Council at the meeting.
He
added, “This is our opportunity to help shape the policy
and business climate and be informed of regulatory
changes. It also allows us to network across a whole
subregion. Usually, only big firms have that luxury.”
In
formal statements at the Asean Leaders Summit held in
Cebu City in January, EAGA was acknowledged as a
test-bed for Asean agreements.
The
subregional cooperation initiative involves a population
of 57.5 million people in a land area of 1.6 million
square kilometers. |
