ILOILO – Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. has laid down the development thrust of Iloilo province for 2023 focused on maximizing agricultural production, developing growth center areas, and creating a strong middle class.
“To maximize agricultural production, create a value chain for agricultural products, and in the process generate employment and business for the province’s agricultural-tourism industry,” Defensor said.
The thrust for agriculture is attainable since Iloilo is a thriving agricultural province, he explained.
The governor seeks to improve the value chain where there are gaps.
He noted, for example, that while sugarcane, coffee and cacao are grown on a large portion of the province’s farmland, many consumers prefer imported products.
“We want to create a value chain for our agricultural products. We want to process it into something else so that we can fill the gaps,” Defensor said.
Also, prior to the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF), Iloilo was a hog-exporting province; he hopes to revive this.
Defensor’s next development thrust is to “develop growth center areas that shall serve as investment centers of the information and communications technology and light industries, and in the process generate employment and business for the province’s service and manufacturing sectors.”
“We are selling the province to the developers who want to put up light industry parks and IT parks,” he added.
The governor said there are no definitive areas yet for this project but developers can take into consideration the availability of land and ease of access to power and transportation before investing.
This will create job opportunities and achieve another development thrust – “to create a strong middle class who shall be financially capacitated clients and customers of the province’s service industry and commercial establishments.”
Defensor anchored this development thrust to the recently launched MoRProGRes Iloilo, or “Movement for a Robust, Progressive, Globally Competitive, and Resilient Province of Iloilo”.
He envisions “a robust, progressive, globally competitive, and resilient province of Iloilo.”
The development goals of the province are as follows:
* to increase investments and employment opportunities
* to attain food security
* to provide accessible, sufficient, and effective health and social services
* to protect and manage the resources and assets of the province
* to provide effective, efficient, and transparent administrative services
* to maintain order and promote public safety./PN
