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SEN.
Edgardo Angara moved to realign a portion of the
proposed P2.571-billion budget of the Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI) to shift the department’s
priorities toward promoting rural and domestic economy
in the country.
“Let’s
now focus on rural, rather then urban, development,”
Angara said before joining President Arroyo’s official
entourage that left for a week-long trip to Europe on
Sunday.
Specifically, he wants to transfer at least P2.794
million intended for overseas investment promotion to
domestic promotion projects of the DTI.
He
pushed for major realignments that would redirect DTI
funding from trade and industry promotion to domestic
small- and medium-scale industries in the rural sector;
readjust the budget away from promoting foreign trade
toward promoting domestic industries; and create an
interim office for a Philippine Trade Commissioner.
With
these major realignments, he added, “we hope that the
DTI would now focus its attention and resources in
encouraging domestic growth and investments.”
In a
statement, Angara asserted that developing the domestic
economy, especially the rural sector, is the mandate of
the DTI. “If we focus our assistance toward developing
the rural economy, then we wouldn’t need so much foreign
investments. This, in turn, will make us less hostage
from the volatility of the foreign markets.”
He added
that this assumption has recently been supported by no
less than the World Bank, which acknowledged its fault
in neglecting the countryside and agricultural
development when giving out aid.
“Now,
the bank has realized that assisting countryside
development is more effective in poverty reduction, both
in terms of impact to poverty alleviation and in terms
of cost.”
He
prodded the DTI to form a task force on technical
assistance to rural industries that would be composed of
various attached agencies under the department with the
DTI as the lead agency.
The task
force, he said, shall develop and empower the small- and
medium-scale entrepreneurs in the rural areas by
providing them with assistance, such as educational and
technical assistance.
“The
task force aims to inject a sense of ownership to the
local government units, who have first been wary of
expanding domestic industries in their area. It will
help the LGUs manage the SMEs themselves,” the senator
said. |
