DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 December)—The promising ongoing developments in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will propel the growth of Mindanao, an official said on Wednesday.
Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Assistant Secretary Romeo Montenegro said during “Wednesdays Media Forum at the Habi at Kape” that the Bangsamoro region has been seeing exponential growth, particularly in the area of agriculture, after the peace situation improved for the last five years.
He said the region reported P3.1 billion in investments as of August this year, surpassing its target of P2.5 billion for the entire year.
He said they are seeing a “more than double investment growth in the BARMM region” for the entire year.
He said BARMM is consistently among the fastest growing regions, ranking third to fifth out of 17 regions in the Philippines.
“When we see BARMM improving, we now see BARMM is pulling us up. Twenty years ago, BARMM has always been pulling us down in terms of our march to progress, but this time around, it’s a transformation of the situation with BARMM, paving the way for us to accelerate our target for improved growth,” he said.
Based on BARMM’s Provincial Product Accounts (PPA) released by the Philippine Statistics Authority last December 7, the aggregate gross regional domestic product of BARMM was estimated at P280.27 billion from 2018 to 2022.
The provinces of Maguindanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur were top contributors to the economic performance of the Bangsamoro region with 27.8% and 25.6% share, respectively, or a combined total of 53.4%.
The report added, meanwhile, that Sulu contributed 16%, Maguindanao del Sur with 13.6%, Tawi-Tawi with 8.8%, and Basilan with 8%.
According to the agency, the PPA is a mechanism to compile the gross domestic product at the subregional level “to provide a suitable measure of economic performance at the provincial and highly urbanized city” and as a means “to strengthen the planning and decision-making of subregional policymakers and stakeholders in crafting more informed economic policies.” (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
