BACOLOD City – The provincial government of Negros Occidental will create a market-driven investment road map to attract more investors.
This is the province’s next step after hosting the “Invest in Negros” business forum on Wednesday at the Dusit Thani Hotel Manila as a side event of the ongoing 33rd Negros Trade Fair at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati City, which will run until Oct. 30.
Joy Ogan, executive assistant to Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., said they will use the inputs from the forum as the basis to come up with an investment roadmap that will include programs making the province more investment-ready.
“This will help us engage better with investors,” she added.
Ogan said through the business forum, the provincial government has also recognized the need for more collaboration with the private sector.
“The role of the government is more on regulatory and creating a positive environment for businesses to grow thus, we need to have more engagements and dialogues especially on the creation of local ordinances allowing investment to grow,” she said.
Ogan added that presenters affirmed the diversification efforts of the province as one measure to boost the local economy, not solely relying on the sugar industry.
“Sugar has a place, there is a big market for sugar. We have to be competitive given that our production cost is very high so we need farm mechanization,” she said.
Negros Occidental is the Philippines’ sugar capital, producing about 60 percent of the country’s sugar output.
Ogan said presenters cited the country’s potential, especially of Negros Occidental, in terms of molasses production.
They recognized that locally-produced molasses, a by-product of sugar, are better in terms of quality compared to those produced in other countries, she said.
“We need to aim for export. We need to go for production of other high- value crops,” she added.
Among the panelists include: Jose Emmanuel Jalandoni, senior vice president and head of Ayala Malls; Danilo Intong, director for investment of the Department of Tourism; Senen Perlada, director of Export Marketing Bureau of the Department of Trade and Industry; Rolando Dy, executive director of University of Asia and the Pacific’s Center for Food and Agriculture; and Hino Motors Philippines Inc. chairman Vicente Mills Jr.
Former governor Rafael Coscolluela, now the provincial consultant for Economic Development and Investment Promotion, discussed the Negros Occidental Local Investment and Incentives Code. (PNA)
