Summit backs 'Angat Pinoy 2004'

The forthcoming First Sustainable Countryside Development Summit scheduled for Feb. 16, 2000 at the PICC will address and support, among others, the six priority areas of the administration's development program, it was disclosed recently by Manuel D. Pacheco, co-chairman of the summit organizing committee.

As embodied in the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan for 1999-2004, which the National Economic and Development Authority has prepared, the key areas of concern are: 1) delivering basic social development services; 2) accelerating rural development; 3) accelerating infrastructure development; 4) enhancing global competitiveness; 5) ensuring macroeconomic stability; and 6) reforming governance.

Dubbed "Angat Pinoy 2004", the vision of the plan is to have a "sustainable development and growth with social equity" in the words of NEDA Director-General Felipe M. Medalla.

A project of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the National Economic and Development Authority, the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific and events organizer Nical-Prom International Inc., the summit is expected to generate agreements, resolutions and action plans to develop the countryside as a net contributor to the country's gross national product.

Six workshop streams and a plenary session make up the summit. The workshop headings are: 1) Financing of Development, 2) Governance and Leadership, 3) Products and Services, 4) Market, Facilities and Infrastructure, 5) Manpower Support and Development, and 6) Business Climate and Environment.