P56.28-B projects approved for NLAQ ‘Super Region’

CABANATUAN CITY – At least P56.28 billion worth of projects, were approved by the national government under President Arroyo’s North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle (NLAQ) Super Region program.

Director Roy Imperial, head of the NLAQ Project Management Office (PMO), told The STAR that the 19 projects will be carried out until to 2011, the biggest of which are the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project (ARIIP) and the Salomague Port in Pangasinan and Ilocos Norte, respectively, worth P7.9 billion each.

Imperial said the projects will help realize the potential of North Luzon, involving 15 provinces in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Regions 1 and 2, the northern parts of the four provinces of Aurora, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Zambales. Funding for these projects will be sourced from recent increases in revenue collections, the private sector, government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and local government units (LGUs).

He said the NLAQ is part of President Arroyo’s and Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap’s roadmap to realizing the region’s full potential that would spur the country’s drive towards agricultural productivity and increased food production not only to supply the major population centers of Luzon, but North Asia as well.

Mrs. Arroyo first unveiled the concept of the super regions in her 2006 State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA), noting the importance of grouping selected regions and provinces by their economic strengths to stimulate economic growth and development and make the country in step with the rest of its Asian neighbors.

Aside from NLAQ, the other super regions are the Luzon Urban Beltway, Central Philippines, Mindanao and Central Philippines.