Decade-old Dev’t Plan to Undergo Revisions

By Boy Ryan B. Zabal

BORACAY - The provincial government of Aklan is supportive of the plan of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to update the Boracay Master Development Plan.
The development plan is already a decade old, revealed Vice Gov. Ronquillo Tolentino, and thus “the administration of Aklan Gov. Carlito Marquez is supportive to redesign the plan”.
Marquez wants the resort island to strengthen its position as a premier tourist destination comparable to Phuket, Thailand and Bali, Indonesia.
IFC, the World Bank’s largest multilateral source of loan and equity financing for private sector projects in the developing world, gathered last June 2005 a 14-member team of German and Filipino consultants, engineers, tourism, marketing and investment experts to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the island’s tourism situation.
“Tourism continues to be an anchor industry of our province and we have to prepare, particularly the resort island of Boracay for our projection of one million tourists by year 2010,” Marquez earlier said.
Tourist arrivals last year reached 499,452, of whom 155,739 were foreign and 343,714 domestic. They all gave Aklan P3.8 billion in tourism receipts.
Tolentino said he also supports moves to improve tourist-related services in Boracay such as health facilities, solid waste management, and the transport system.
“It is important for the island to revise the 1990 Boracay Master Development Plan to sustain investment prospects and maintain tourism growth,” Tolentino added.
IFC, private investment arm of the World Bank, likewise, recommended the construction of more tourism projects, transfer sthe sanitary landfill to mainland Malay and improve the transportation facilities.
Winfriet Weirner, head of the German team from Bavarian-based Obermeyer Planning and Consultancy and Mina Gabor, a former secretary of tourism, both agreed the tourism-focused projects would develop Boracay Island into a world class tourist destination.