Truce in ARMM paves way for business gab

COTABATO CITY — Taking advantage of the ongoing ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), line agencies of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will hold on Sept. 1-2 a regional business congress for local traders to discuss measures that could complement the peace process.

Organizers are expecting President Arroyo to grace the second ARMM business congress in Marawi City, to be held under the auspices of the office of ARMM Gov. Parouk Hussin, the region’s trade and industry department and the newly organized Regional Business Council.

"By improving the region’s business climate and attracting foreign investors, we can stabilize the local economy and subsequently, promote peace and sustainable development in the region," said lawyer Ishak Mastura, ARMM trade and industry secretary.

Last year’s business congress here was attended by more than 300 traders from all over ARMM as well as Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

This year’s assembly will be capped by the launch of a $50-million banana farm project in the Lanao del Sur towns of Bombaran and Wao towns by the Paglas Corp. in Maguindanao and local Maranaw entrepreneurs.

The large-scale banana faming venture, the first ever in Lanao del Sur, will be jointly bankrolled by Arabian, American and Chinese investors.

Paglas Corp., owned by the influential Paglas family of Datu Paglas, now a booming town in the second district of Maguindanao, pioneered the extensive propagation of table bananas in the province.

In the past six years, the town of Datu Paglas generated a total of $78 million in investments channeled through Paglas Corp. by Arab businessmen, generating employment for some 4,000 residents, mostly MILF members.

Mastura said Paglas Corp. and its local counterparts have targeted the initial development of a 6,000-hectare banana farm in Lanao del Sur.

"We will have business matching during the two-day congress. We shall help businessmen from different parts of the ARMM and from abroad determine what viable projects they can put up in the region," Mastura said.

Hussin, chairman of the regional peace and order council, earlier certified as urgent the proposed creation of the Regional Economic Zone Authority (REZA), now pending in the Regional Legislative Assembly, to hasten efforts of charting the region’s economic growth.

The proposed REZA law, whose main proponent is Mastura’s office, aims to establish a trading mechanism to provide local and foreign investors tariff and tax incentives to lure them to the ARMM.

The REZA, Hussin said, will operate just like the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

Antonio Santos, vice president for Mindanao of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said they are optimistic that the revival of the stalled peace talks between the government and the MILF would usher in improvements in the ARMM’s business climate.

"We have been getting feedback from our counterparts in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and even in Singapore that their confidence in our investment climate is now gradually improving because of the efforts of the MILF and Malacañang to revive the talks," he said.