22 Jun Incoming Finance Chief Prioritizes Modernizing Agriculture
Image Source | www.wsj.com
“Farming should no longer be the poverty trap it has been for generations,” incoming Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez said.
In order to expedite development of rural areas and to generate more job opportunities in the countryside, Duterte’s administration sees modernizing agriculture and encouraging agribusiness to generate higher value added products as its solutions.
During the “Sulong Pilipinas: Hakbang Tungo sa Kaunlaran” which is a Consultation workshop with the Business Community held at the SMX Convention Center, SM Lanang Premier, incoming National Economic Development Authority (Neda) director Ernesto Pernia said in a speech that the Philippine’s economy must eye on agriculture and manufacturing rather than service-driven economy.
In a report, president George Barcelon of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. said that when prioritized, agriculture can become a major economy driver of the country.
However, chair of the mindanao Business Council (MinBC) Vicente Lao said in his part that in terms of infrastucture in agriculture, Mindanao is lagging behind quoting him, “We need to increase agriculture infrastructure development in Mindanao.”
Lao added, “Mindanao holds a lot of potentials especially in agriculture, we have a lot of resources here (Mindanao) that were left untapped, all these if utilized will generate better revenue.”
Some P1 billion per region has been allocated by the directive of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte for agricultural programs as said by incoming Department of Agriculture secretary Manny Piñol. He added that he’ll be proposing an additional P1 billion to be provided to the 20 poorest provinces in the country meant specifically for food production livelihood projects.
No Comments