DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said the peace and order situation in Mindanao remains “a challenge” as some foreign investors back out because of security issues.
“There are some issues they want to resolve, especially (about) security because when you mention Mindanao in business networking sessions or business negotiations, there are foreign investors who would back out because of that,” said Heidi Villanueva, head of the economic zone (ecozone) planning of MinDA.
Claiming that the recent bombing in Davao city did not dampen investor confidence in the island, Bernie Tomas Jr., chief investments production division of MinDa stressed in a press conference yesterday that countryside development is needed.
“In order to promote investments, we also have to disperse our investments in the countryside and one strategy of that is to have ecozone development,” he said.
Tomas said out of the 80 ecozones in Mindanao, 26 companies are engaged in information technology (IT) – business process outsourcing (BPO); 20 for agro-industrial; 28 for manufacturing and four for tourism and one for medical tourism.
Villanueva added that the ecozones are already in place “so it is a matter of administrative procedure in making them operational because some of them are lacking in papers.”
“We wanted to collaborate with the investors so we can strengthen the economic zones here in Mindanao since we can have one voice in promoting investment here,” Villanueva said. (davaotoday.com)
