By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — Negros Occidental has seven investment areas, the provincial government investment consultant Rafael Coscolluela revealed.
These are tourism, agribusiness, renewable energy, biomass-based power, human resource development, climate-resilient houses, and business process outsourcing–information and communications technology.
Coscolluela, a former governor, spoke about Negros Occidental’s investment opportunities in an investment forum at the Sugarland Hotel here yesterday.
Attended by government and private sector representatives, the forum was conducted by the provincial government in partnership with the Development Bank of the Philippines.
Coscolluela said the province is prioritizing the formulation of its tourism development plan and the rebranding of its potential tourism attractions.
“We also need to know the right products in the right places,” he stressed.
To make the most of these investment areas, Coscolluela said, Negros Occidental needs to have a business development plan, market-savvy diversification, management technology and design, adequate financing, right business model, enough government support, and entrepreneurial leadership and vision.
Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the forum was timely, as the province prepares itself for the implementation of low tariffs on imported products from Southeast Asian countries in 2015, seen to greatly affect the Philippine sugar industry.
“We need to look beyond sugar,” the governor said. “We need to diversify.”
Mayor Monico Puentevella was also in the forum.
“Any kind of investment (in the province) will always redound to the progress of Bacolod,” he said, citing his “good (working) relationship” with the governor,
Puentevella revealed that this capital city will conduct its own investment forum./PN
