Tourism, agri get boost

THE Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) has lauded the recent signing of an agreement between the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (Pids) that is expected to strengthen the conduct of research in agriculture and tourism sector in Mindanao. Vicente T. Lao, chair of the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) told reporters in a press conference during the first Mindanao Policy Research Forum at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Friday that as agriculture and tourism sectors are considered as pillars of Mindanao's economy, the partnership will give light on conducting more policy researches on these two leading sectors. "We will be requesting Pids to do research policies on agriculture and tourism, policies that will help business sectors especially agriculture and tourism industries, and also service industry to be globally competitive," he said. The agreement promotes policy research and knowledge sharing in support to Mindanao's development needs, facilitate access to policy studies and materials produced by higher education institutions (HEIs) on the island. Also part of the agreement is to launch and establish the Mindanao Knowledge Research and Policy Center (MKRPC). Gilberto Llanto, president of Pids, said that "Policies should be based on research. We propose for a system that will formalize the review of policies using Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), a tool in research that will determine if the policy is beneficial or not. Reviewing the existing policies and regulations and reviewing the proposed policies are essential in Policy regulation." Minda Undersecretary Janet M. Lopoz, for her part, said that they are looking forward on the partnership. She said they are eager to access the new technology and tool in research for a better assessment in the regulatory impact of certain policies. The new tool in research is dubbed as "Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA)." "RIA, which we will be using later on, will add more weighs in to our arguments for our policy advocacy efforts," she said. She also said that they are looking at some policies like the Chassis Ro-Ro, allowing the non-conventional size shipping or vessels in Zamboanga, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and the One-Stop Facilitation and Monitoring Center for Renewable-Energy (RE) projects. "These are some of the policies that may not be an urgent reform in the entire country but can be seen as urgent in the island because of some reasons like in the case of Chassis RO-RO, the Mindanao is in more proximity to other neighboring countries," Lopoz said. (ASP)