Development Management
Resume:
Glan, Parang tie up to resume Glan-Tahuna trade partnership
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Thursday, July 28, 2011
GLAN, Sarangani -- Trading and investment activities in Glan will soon be revived and strengthened as the municipalities of Glan and Parang signed recently a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to resume the suspended Glan-Tahuna trade route.
The said route started operating in March last year, using the Indonesian sea vessel KM Sunlia, a government-subsidized cargo ship, which operates on a bi-monthly schedule. However, it was temporarily cancelled due to budget constraints from the Indonesian side.
The MOU was signed last June 27 after a series of exploratory talks between the municipalities of Glan and Parang regarding the feasibility of resuming such business venture with Tahuna, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
The imbalance of trade products coming from Glan to Tahuna was identified as one of the challenges during the meeting with Glan Chamber of Commerce President, Robert M. Yee, and Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) chair, Secretary Luwalhati R. Antonino, the Sumbang Point Economic Development Corporation (Spedco) last year.
The recent MoU addresses this issue by including local products from the Municipality of Parang in the trading activities of the said route. Parang would import products from Indonesia and also export their products to the said country. Glan will remain the first and last port of entry of the vessel.
The two municipalities also agreed to subsidize the needed fuel for the vessel, along with the Indonesian government, to ensure the sustainability of the route.
This initiative is part of the thrusts of the Jose Abad Santos Glan Sarangani-Cooperation Triangle (Jags-CT), an LGU-initiated growth triangle under the auspices of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-The Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga).
This effort is significant in pursuing the cross-border cooperation in the area of trade and commerce within the cooperation triangle.
Also, this route, when resumed is the only sea trade link of Mindanao to the rest of Eaga, while a series of feasibility studies on Ro-Ro shipping routes are still being conducted for the Zamboanga-Muara and Bitung-Davao/General Santos links.
Apart from trade and commerce, Jags-CT has also initiated various cross-border activities, specifically with Indonesia in the areas of tourism promotion, fisheries and marine resource development, education, training, and socio-cultural development.
Minda's Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework identified the need to have a stronger negotiation and advocacy efforts with partner BIMP-Eaga countries, to secure stronger government and private sector commitment to sub-regional economic cooperation.
"We need to foster more active economic linkages with BIMP-Eaga partner countries. This includes active pursuit of the Asean Roll On-Roll Off initiative to further ease transport of people and goods with our regional neighbors," Antonino said.
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on July 29, 2011.
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