Bro. Eddie Villanueva on 5 February 2013 urged the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to involve local government units (LGUs) in national investment planning initiatives to build industries most suited for a particular province or region where resources are most available.
Villanueva said a “bottom-up strategy” will allow the government to tap into the LGUs’ knowledge base in terms of local assets, strengths, and opportunities to improve national investment planning.
“The government should adopt as its policy the complete involvement of the local government units in national investment planning to speed up the pace and spread out the coverage of economic development,” Villanueva said.
“This bottom-up approach to investment planning will also allow the government to tap into a rich database of knowledge resources that our LGUs posses.
”Villanueva’s pronouncement came in the heels of a week-long visit by an American trade mission to Manila from January 23-25 to promote greater trade and investment between the United States and the Philippines.
The American trade mission included representatives from the US Education Finance Group, Citigroup, Chevron, Coca Cola, and General Electric. Also, JP Morgan Chase, Procter & Gamble, Peregrine Development International, CV Starr & Co., McLarty & Associates, Federal Express and Spence & Co.
According to Villanueva, the involvement of LGUs in investment planning will allow DTI to identify new potential areas of growth and spread out development to the countryside.
As such, this approach has the potential of creating sustainable and thriving local industries that create jobs and related businesses, and help reverse labor migration to urban areas.
“Building industries in our regions and not only concentrating on urban areas is one way for government to achieve inclusive growth by way of evenly creating employment and business opportunities both in urban and rural areas,” Villanueva said.
“This is also a sustainable investment model that taps into the locally-available resources as well as the inherent strengths of our provinces and regions.”
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