MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Mindanao Pushed as BIMP-EAGA Food and Logistics Corridor
Mindanao Pushed as BIMP-EAGA Food and Logistics Corridor
24/05/2013 (BusinessWorld Online Edition) - The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) is promoting the island as the food and logistics corridor of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).
Romeo M. Montenegro, MinDA investment promotion and public affairs director, said Mindanao is in the best position to attain such objective.
He said positioning the island as food and logistics corridor could even lead to entry of Mindanao bananas to Malaysia, he said, noting the agency is eyeing for export of products that are not available in other BIMP-EAGA areas.
He also underscored Mindanao’s capacity to absorb spill over investments from the region’s major industries citing oil palm as an example.
Malaysia, he said, is almost saturated already as its areas suitable to oil palm plantations while Mindanao has close to one million hectares of idle lands found ideal for oil palm growing.
A major constraint, however, is availability of support infrastructure, he said. "We don’t have the kind of port facilities such as those in Manila with cranes that can accommodate huge volume of container vans," he said.
Mr. Montenegro added that the shipping cost in Mindanao is also expensive because of several factors such as limited port space and traffic that cause delay in the unloading of products.
"The challenge now is getting the products in shortest time," he said.
Mr. Montenegro said MinDA is currently advocating policy and infrastructure reforms that would address current issues.
He said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is helping the agency in coming up with a master plan particularly in identifying areas that could support the food and logistics corridor objective.
MinDA earlier said that out of the almost 900,000 hectares of land identified to be suitable for oil palm plantation, 177,000 hectares of it are already under negotiation for palm oil development.
Majority of these areas are located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Region 13 or the Caraga Region.
"This calls for a better and stronger participation of our private sector, and more facilitative policies and programs from the government’s end," MinDA Chairperson Luwalhati Antonino said.
Under MinDA’s investment program, various business-matching sessions were conducted with potential palm oil investors, in partnership with the Board of Investments (BoI) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which may translate into actual investment projects in a span of two years.
"Several international players in the palm oil industry are actually very interested in the vast lands that Mindanao has to offer, we just have to continue facilitating the actual implementation of these investments," Ms. Antonino explained.
Recently, the Univanich Carmen Palm Oil Corp. conducted its ground-breaking ceremonies for its P600 million palm oil crushing mill in Carmen, Cotabato.
Romeo M. Montenegro, MinDA investment promotion and public affairs director, said Mindanao is in the best position to attain such objective.
He said positioning the island as food and logistics corridor could even lead to entry of Mindanao bananas to Malaysia, he said, noting the agency is eyeing for export of products that are not available in other BIMP-EAGA areas.
He also underscored Mindanao’s capacity to absorb spill over investments from the region’s major industries citing oil palm as an example.
Malaysia, he said, is almost saturated already as its areas suitable to oil palm plantations while Mindanao has close to one million hectares of idle lands found ideal for oil palm growing.
A major constraint, however, is availability of support infrastructure, he said. "We don’t have the kind of port facilities such as those in Manila with cranes that can accommodate huge volume of container vans," he said.
Mr. Montenegro added that the shipping cost in Mindanao is also expensive because of several factors such as limited port space and traffic that cause delay in the unloading of products.
"The challenge now is getting the products in shortest time," he said.
Mr. Montenegro said MinDA is currently advocating policy and infrastructure reforms that would address current issues.
He said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is helping the agency in coming up with a master plan particularly in identifying areas that could support the food and logistics corridor objective.
MinDA earlier said that out of the almost 900,000 hectares of land identified to be suitable for oil palm plantation, 177,000 hectares of it are already under negotiation for palm oil development.
Majority of these areas are located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Region 13 or the Caraga Region.
"This calls for a better and stronger participation of our private sector, and more facilitative policies and programs from the government’s end," MinDA Chairperson Luwalhati Antonino said.
Under MinDA’s investment program, various business-matching sessions were conducted with potential palm oil investors, in partnership with the Board of Investments (BoI) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which may translate into actual investment projects in a span of two years.
"Several international players in the palm oil industry are actually very interested in the vast lands that Mindanao has to offer, we just have to continue facilitating the actual implementation of these investments," Ms. Antonino explained.
Recently, the Univanich Carmen Palm Oil Corp. conducted its ground-breaking ceremonies for its P600 million palm oil crushing mill in Carmen, Cotabato.