COTABATO CITY – The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) expressed support in promoting the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as an investment destination.
In a manifesto signed by its top officials on Monday, the MAP urged its members and its various committees to integrate action plans in coordination with the ARMM’s Regional Board of Investment (RBOI-ARMM) to achieve this objective.
The document, the MAP said, “manifests long term commitment to advocate policies for a competitive and stable policy environment to encourage and enable private sector investments in the ARMM and to support productivity programs/projects in tourism, seaweeds, mariculture, tree crops, basic infrastructure, energy, education, research, SME (small and medium enterprises) among other opportunities under the RBOI IPP (Investment Priorities Plan).”
The group’s commitment came after Atty. Ishak Mastura, RBOI-ARMM chairman, told the country’s top managers that the region is ready for business. Chairman Mastura was invited by the MAP to present RBOI-ARMM’s advocacies on tourism, ease of doing business, financing, and agribusiness, among others.
All businesses, including foreign investors, are welcome in ARMM, Chairman Mastura said. Prospective investors in the region, he said, want access to financing from local banks to balance the risk.
“If you give access to financing, we will find the investors for you,” the RBOI-ARMM chief told MAP officials who represent the county’s biggest businesses including major financial institutions. Chairman Mastura noted that currently, banks hardly lend to private businesses in ARMM even as big companies based in the National Capital Region are not coming in.
Among those present in the dialogue between the RBOI-ARMM and the MAP are former Interior and Local Government secretary Rafael Alunan, former Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del Rosario, former Board of Investments chief Melito Salazar, former Tourism secretary Mina Gabor, former Socio Economic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito, and American Chamber of Commerce Philippines president John Forbes.
MAP’s committees cover Agribusiness and Countryside Development; Trade, Investments and Tourism; Energy; Management Development; and Traffic, Transportation and Infrastructure. (Bureau of Public Information)
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