APRIL WILL BE A BUSY month for the province of Sultan Kudarat, with several activities lined up.

These include the 2nd Sultan Kudarat Business Week Celebration (April 7-11) to be hosted by the Sultan Kudarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc. (SKCCIFI), Federation of Mindanao Business Chambers of Mindanao and Isulan Chamber of Commerce and the 2nd SocSarGen (South Cotabato, Saranggani, General Santos) Area Business Conference on April 16-21.

The province is composed of 11 municipalities and one component city; its coastal areas and towns are directly facing Australia and the three major Asean partners of Mindanao—Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia

Trade concerns

Among the issues to be discussed are the lack of products-to-region association, high cost of product licensing, absence of food testing laboratory, unregulated importation of consumer products, questionable quality of imports, market and supply matching for raw materials and products, extortion in several check points, preservation of aquamarine products, infrastructure problems such as the lack of bulk handling facilities, and the lack of all-weather road networks.

To address these concerns, event organizers have identified some programs that will be undertaken. These include the branding of goods produced in the region as “Mindanano Ini” [This is Mindanao]; lobbying for reduction of product licensing fees; establishment of regional food testing and product analysis laboratories; strict enforcement of import regulations; enforcement of import monitoring; creation of a Mindanao business portal; establishment of aquamarine post-harvest facilities, and port expansion.

Tourism issues

The tourism sector will discuss the absence of all-weather road access to identified tourism sites, poor tourism facilities, Mindanao regional air links, lack of interregional Mindanao travel and tour coordination among concerned agencies, and various promotional and marketing efforts.

Organizers say the issues will be addressed through the holding of fora that will bring the private sector and local government units together to work on investments in tourism facilities in identified tourism sites; lobbying for budget allocation for the construction and rehabilitation of all-weather road networks in identified tourism sites; massive information campaign to promote the Mindanao Tourism Roadmap; creation of a Mindanao Travel Website; publication of Mindanao Travel and Trade Guidebook; promotion of a stronger public-private sector partnership in tourism programs and projects, and the establishment of a Mindanao Regional Air Linkage.

Business congress

The congress is an annual Mindanao-wide event that will gather members of the business community, local government units, national and regional government offices to discuss economic programs, issues and advocacy that will help make Mindanao globally competitive in trade and tourism—which are the focus of this year’s congress. The congress has adopted the theme “Go Mindanao: Gearing towards global competitiveness in trade and tourism.”

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