Davao RDCs, PSRs convention to tackle Anti-Red Tape Act

DAVAO CITY, Feb. 3 (PNA) -- Exploring the Anti-Red Tape Act will highlight the upcoming 3rd National Convention of the Regional Development Councils (RDCs) and Private Sector Representatives (PSRs) on February 11-13 at the Waterfront Insular Hotel here.

Vicente Lao, RDC Davao chair, said the Anti-Red Tape Act is a good tool for the private sector to monitor expenditures and tasks not acted by government line agencies.

RDC is the highest development body in Region 11.

Lao said the PSRs represent the private sectors’ interest in the development of Region 11. In other areas, the members of the RDC are named by politicians.

Other items that will be highlighted in the event with theme “RDCs Beyond 2010” are the public-private participation of RDC in relation to the formulation of plans and programs geared towards the development of Region 11.

The active participation of the PSRs in the RDC proves that not all developments should be politically motivated, Lao said.

Louie Rabat, conference chair who is also the RDC representative for crops and grains, said “we want our voices to be heard” particularly on the requirements needed for each industry sector in the same manner that the PSRs also want to hear the provincial and local governments on what projects they want to establish in their respective communities.

In the rice sector, for instance, the private sector wants to increase the rehabilitation of irrigation facilities to improve production, Rabat said.

Aside from the private sector, the RDC consists of the provincial governors, municipal and city mayors and other politicians, and national government line agencies that comprise the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Board.

Rabat said the PSRs participation in the RDC is aimed at jobs production and budgeting of available funds for identified priority projects.

He said the private sector has identified the ICT sector as a priority for jobs generation followed by the mining sector and the banana industry.

Pointing out that 50 percent of the RDC is business oriented, the private sector ensures that “the budget allocated for each identified project is well-spent,” he said.

Hence, the PSRs act as the balancing body in the RDC, he said.

NEDA regional director Ma. Lourdes Lim, for her part, said the RDC is expected to initiate the successor development plan of Region 11 for the next six years.

She said because of the active participation of the private sector in the RDC, the region was not severely affected by the impact of the global financial slump.

With the private sector, the RDC had identified priority areas such as the industry clusters.

“Due to our resiliency the RDC with the active role of the PSRs adopted emergency measures to confront the challenges of the financial crisis that’s why, we were not seriously affected by the crisis,” she said.

In 2009, the RDC had facilitated the implementation of the modern rice processing complex in Davao del Sur with the help of Korean donor funds.

The project is aimed at increasing production not only in the province but the entire Region 11, she said.

The RDC also facilitated the lifting of the cap on the number of hectares that will be planted with banana by the national government.

Lim said with the RDC initiative, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued an executive order lifting the 25,000 hectare cap for banana plantations.

The RDC also helped in the controversial ban on aerial spraying by recommending to President Arroyo to call on responsible government agencies such as the Department of Agriculture (DA) through the Food and Pesticide Authority (PFA) to conduct a study on the issue at hand.

President Arroyo responded by signing an executive order creating an interagency body to conduct the study.

The move of the FPA to invite British aerial spray drift and pesticide application expert Dr. Andrew Hewitt as speaker of the “Forum on Science Behind Aerial Spraying” last week at UP-Mindanao in Tugbok, Davao City was one of the results of the RDC’s initiative to help in the controversy, Lim said. (PNA)
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