Mega Regions Plan

[samsungster]

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IN GOVERNMENT’S continued efforts to spur growth in the country’s regions and boost their economic potential, Malacañang on Thursday said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be formally unveiling what it called "mega-regions."

The “mega-region” concept divides the country into four multi-regional “investment and development areas,” namely:

North Luzon (Regions 1, 2 and Cordillera Autonomous Region, plus Aurora and Nueva Ecija); Metro Luzon (Regions 3, 4A, and the National Capital Region);
Central Philippines (Regions 4-B, 5 to ; and
Mindanao (Regions 9 to 13 and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao).

The President will present the concept when she and her Cabinet meet local officials of Northern Luzon in Cauayan, Isabela on Friday, Secretary to the Cabinet Ricardo Saludo said at a briefing on the mega-regions.

At the briefing, Saludo said Arroyo will soon draft an executive order outlining the boundaries of the development areas and the mechanisms by which local government units will participate in implementing the concept.

Saludo said the new groupings will allow regional leaders and sectors to participate more intensively in planning, monitoring, and fine-tuning development programs and projects in their regions.

"The President's idea is to move toward larger groupings that will boost economic and market potentials beyond what each region can generate, with economies of scale, synergies, and complementation that will be more attractive to investors," Saludo said.

"In addition, a larger resource base of each mega-region will be available for the provision of social services and pump-priming infrastructure, particularly the poorer provinces," he added.

Saludo said planning discussions will be held among the regional development councils executive committees, governors, and mayors of regional capital cities.

During Friday's Cabinet meeting, the National Economic and Development Authority will also make an economic and social report on the enlarged investment areas, noting key features such as land area, major industries, power-generating capacity, tourism, road network, strengths, weaknesses, demographics, and industrial facilities, Saludo said.

The Cauayan meeting is the first of four out-of-town Cabinet meetings until July to "review and revitalize investments and development blueprints from a supra-regional perspective" together with local governments, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

The next two out-of-town Cabinet meetings, in Metro Luzon and Mindanao, will be held before Arroyo leaves for Europe towards the end of the month. The last meeting, for Central Philippines, will take place upon her return to the country.

[baron]

I think the plan was conceived in order to cluster the key cities and the less developed cities/ provinces in the four regions. This will create stronger economic regions in the country. This will promote the economy and infrastructure used by the developed cities such as Manila, Davao, and Cebu to that of the less developed countries so that the less developed ones will also benefit from the improved economy and infrastructure the developed cities are experiencing.

In such a way, the less developed will improve to the level that of the major cities we have.


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[wanderlust]

I think this will be good as the regions could pool their resources to advance economic growth particularly in poorer areas. They could jointly promote their respective jurisdictions to potential investors.