Tuguegarao City – The RDC 2-Economic Development Committee held its 1st Quarter Business Meeting at the NEDA Regional Office 2 on February 18, 2015. The meeting was presided over by its Chair, Gov. Ruth Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya.

One of the highlights of the meeting is the confirmation of the Region 02 Tourism Council as a full-fledge member of the EDC. The Region 02 Tourism Council, represented by its President Ms. Cecilia Lamadrid-Dy, is an association of private resort and hotel owners that complements the advocacy of the Department of Tourism in the development of the tourism sector. Recognizing the integral role of the private sector in tourism development, the Committee unanimously agreed to approve the membership of the Region 02 Tourism Council in the EDC.

Meanwhile, another agenda item that was tackled is the report on the conduct of the Region 02 Coconut Industry Value Chain Analysis (VCA) Workshop. Previously, the Economic Development Committee has chosen coconut as the prime commodity to be developed into an EDC Convergence Project considering its huge potentials and opportunities for Cagayan Valley. As such, the VCA Workshop was conducted primarily to provide a baseline for the formulation of the Coconut Industry Cluster Plan which will be undertaken during the year. Spearheaded by the DTI, the EDC members agreed and recognized the significance of coming up with an Industry Cluster Plan for Coconut as a major activity of the Committee this year.

The Committee likewise discussed the proposal to establish a Region 02 Investments Website. This project proposal is designed to put together available and reliable basic data on investments in the region in one website, with emphasis on the information requirements of the business sector. It aims to provide prospective investors an avenue to obtain comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date information on investments anytime and anywhere. The EDC has greatly considered the approval of the proposal as they consider it as a potent source of information that will help the RDC market the region’s investment potentials not only nationally but also globally.

The EDC likewise tackled the issues pertaining to the economic sector that were raised during the RDC-Private Sector Representatives National Convention in August last year. RDC 2 Private Sector Representative Mr. Elpidio Tortoza highlighted issues and concerns related to industry clustering, tourism development, strengthening the role of cooperatives and need to reduce and simplify business permit applications. This was responded to by concerned agencies on what have they so far done and interventions that they will continue to do along each of these concerns.