Thursday, August 13, 2009

Shaping the Future of Altavas Through Local And Regional Economic Development Initiatives


by Rhea M. Ledesma

The stakeholders of the Municipality of Altavas are one in saying that they are the Center of Trade and Industry, booming with economic activities that stirs the growth of their local economy. The Municipality of Altavas, a fourth class municipality, has high hopes of achieving a third class status in the months ahead. It has started looking at strategic focus and options where their resources can have maximum results.

Last month, Altavas embarked on a strategic and development planning process, which we referred to as the Local/Regional Economic Development (LRED). It aims to forge public private partnership to promote holistic economic growth in Altavas. This LRED initiative is headed by Mayor Kathryne Refol to enlist everyone’s participation to come up with viable economic projects that will stimulate economic growth. Organized by the Department of Trade and Industry-Aklan represented by its Provincial Director, Engr. Diosdado P. Cadena, Jr. with its partner agency, the German Technical Cooperation represented by Ms. Rhea Ledesma, the GTZ Regional Coordinator for Western Visayas organized LRED.

LRED is an approach to bring people together from the private and the public sector to have a dialogue and discuss possible strategic inter-ventions to identified problems. LRED involves the conduct of the Rapid Economic Appraisal (REA) to capture the local economic condition by conducting interviews with the private businesses, the academe, NGOs, LGUs present in the locality. The result of the REA is an important input as to how the action plans will be formulated, an output of the LRED planning process.

LRED is also one of the major interventions in the SMEDSEP program (Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable Employment Program). SMEDSEP is a development cooperation project between the Philippines and Germany. It aims to: 1. improve the business and investment climate for SME in the Philippines, especially in the Visayas, and 2. contributes to the efforts of the Philippine government to improve the framework conditions for private sector development in the country. It is implemented in partnership with DTI at national, regional and provincial levels on behalf of the Philippine government and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

GTZ is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations owned by the German Government. For 30 years, it has been providing forward looking con-tributions to political, economic, ecological and social development in partner countries. GTZ supports reform and change processes in an increasingly globalized world, often working under difficult conditions. GTZ’s major approach to facilitate change is promoting capacity development of people and partner organizations as well as improving institutions and frame conditions in partner countries. The joint projects and programs are outcome and impact oriented that contribute towards socioeconomic progress. /MP

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