Saturday, April 27, 2024

NorMin ‘service-oriented’ contributor in PH economy: NEDA

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (December 14, 2023, 3:33 pm) – Northern Mindanao region is hailed as a “service-oriented” economy, with its services sector posting a 54.5 percent contribution to its 2022 gross regional domestic product (GRDP), the regional National Economic Development Authority (NEDA-10) office reported Thursday

In a statement, NEDA-10 director Mylah Faye Aurora Cariño said the services sector contributed PHP509.9 billion in gross value added in the region and a growth rate of 10.1 percent from the previous 2021-2022 rate.
“That includes tourism, accommodation services, and other service-related subsectors,” Cariño said.
Northern Mindanao’s GRDP increased by 7.2 percent or PHP935 billion, compared to the 6.3 percent growth in the previous year, which was impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
“That is why we are hoping that there will be no more pandemic because it will affect the mobility of our industry, especially in the services sector,” she said.
Also included in the growth drivers in the 2022 GRDP were the industry sector which covered 25.6 percent or PHP238.8 billion; and the agriculture sector which has 19.9 percent of the share or worth PHP186.6 billion in gross value.
Out of the five provinces and two chartered cities in the region, Bukidnon province remains the capital of the agriculture industry in Northern Mindanao.
Meanwhile, this city remains the top contributor to the regional economy of Northern Mindanao, according to the data presented by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
PSA data indicated that of the PHP935.3 billion value of Northern Mindanao’s gross domestic product in 2022, this city accounted for the largest share of 28 percent, followed by Bukidnon province at 26.6 percent, while Misamis Oriental in third at 16.8 percent.
The PPA measures the economic performance of the provinces and highly urbanized cities of the region. (Ercel Maandig and Nef Luczon/PNA)

DA-NorMin holds annual R4D review

MALAYBALAY CITY, BUKIDNON – The Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office 10 (DA-RFO 10), through its Research Division, spearheaded the agency’s Research for Development (R4D) Review on October 2-3 at the Northern Mindanao Agricultural Crops and Livestock Research Complex (NMACLRC) in Dalwangan

Evaluators from the Northern Mindanao Research Development and Extension Network (NOMIRDEN) member agencies reviewed the 12 presented research studies/projects, comprising 10 completed and two ongoing.

The annual R4D review mainly aims to evaluate the methodology used in research projects, the attainment of objectives, and the generation of comments and suggestions to the identified challenges affecting research project adoption.

The proposed research projects include crops, developmental research, integrated farming systems, pest and nutrient management, value-added products development, adaptability yield trials, technology adoption, and other fields of studies concerning the agriculture sector.

DA-10 Regional Executive Director Carlene C. Collado extended his gratitude to the evaluators for their time and effort in helping the agency’s research initiative be approved until submission to the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) based on the evaluations.

“DA management is fully supportive of our research initiatives, and hopefully, all of these proposals will contribute to an empowered research and development system, which will lead to expanded economic opportunities for those who engage in agriculture and fisheries, particularly small and subsistence farmers and fisherfolk,” he said.

Dir. Collado challenged the researchers to transfer the products of technology down to the farmers’ level and hoped that the personnel could identify success stories from their studies.

Meanwhile, DA-10 Regional Technical Director for Operations Carlota S. Madriaga shared the significance of generating scientific findings and their relevance to the mandates and thrust of DA, which is food security.

“As One DA, we will invite other Regional Management Committee (RMC) members to present for the next research review so that we can really have that One DA system,” she conveyed.

Closing the activity is the awarding of the best research papers, of which Maridith A. Flores, Senior Science Research Specialist of DA-10 Research division, won first place for her study, “Market-driven Varietal Testing and Validation for Effective Positioning of Varieties in Target Rice Ecosystems and Seed Chains in Region 10.”

Placing second and third were Berly F. Tatoy, PhD, Research Center for Hilly Land Development chief for her study, “Surveillance, Monitoring and Management of Arthropods and Diseases of Corn in Mindanao,” and Carmelito R. Lapoot, NMACLRC chief for the “Soil Health Management for Sustained Yield of Cassava”, respectively.

The three best research paper awardees will advance for presentation and competition to this year’s regional research symposium annually conducted by the Northern Mindanao Consortium on Agriculture, Aquaculture Research and Development (NOMCAARD).

The panel of Evaluators were Elmer E. Enicola of the Institute of Plant Breeding – University of the Philippines – Los Baños (IPB-UPLB); Floro V. Dalapag of the Regional Agricultural and Fishery Council (RAFC); Mercedita G. Barbarona and Lydia E. Tiongco of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR); Maria Estella B. Detalla, PhD and Lowella R. Angcos, PhD of the Central Mindanao University (CMU); and Ma. Estrella Luz Penaloza of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

DA-10 RTD for Research and Regulations Cora A. Dumayaca supported the activity with the Research Division and its research stations. (DA RFO-10)

Northern Mindanao building more hospitals

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities in Northern Mindanao are building more hospitals to address the shortage of beds and staff in case there is a new emergency in the future

Mylah Faye Cariño, regional director of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), said the 600-bed St. Francis Doctors’ Hospital and Medical Center has already been constructed along Masterson Avenue. At the same time, the city government of Cagayan de Oro has also finished the construction of a hospital in Barangay Lumbia.
In nearby Gingoog City, trader Arsenio Sebastian said the Polytechnic business group had started constructing a 100-bed capacity hospital that would complement a kidney center being planned by the local government.
Lanao del Norte Governor Imelda Quibranza-Dimaporo said they have already converted a COVID-19 testing center in the capital municipality of Tubod into a facility for infectious diseases.
NEDA 10 and the Northern Mindanao Regional Development Council (RDC) presented these developments during the launching of the Northern Mindanao Regional Development Plan 2023-2028 on June 21.
The plan is to build up the ratio of hospital bed capacity to one per 1,000 patients by 2028. At present, the bed-to-patient ratio in Region 10 is 1: 2,328.
Region 10 is comprised of nine cities—Cagayan de Oro, El Salvador, Gingoog, Iligan, Malaybalay, Oroquieta, Ozamiz, Tangub and Valencia—and five provinces, namely, Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental.
“Many of these hospitals are presently funded by private business, but the government would be investing more,” Cariño said.
Ralph Paguio, vice president of Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company and business sector representative to RDC 10, said the government should not be caught unprepared again where hospitals were teeming with record numbers of COVID-19 patients.
“A friend of mine who was infected with COVID-19 died inside his car unattended because the hospital was already full,” Paguio recalled.
He said the Northern Mindanao Medical Center, Region 10’s main facility for COVID-19, overflowed with patients as smaller hospitals from the other cities and provinces sent more of their cases.
Cagayan de Oro, during the peak of the pandemic on July 7, 2022, had a cumulative 25,945 cases and 941 deaths since March 2020. (Froilan Gallardo/ MindaNews)

Northern Mindanao tourism bounces back by 177% in 2022

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Tourism in Northern Mindanao Region bounced back by 177 percent last year following the easing of restrictions from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) protocols, an official said on April 28, 2023

Mylah Faye Aurora Cariño, the region’s National Economic Development Authority (NEDA-10) director, said the exceptional achievement can be attributed to “revenge travels” or the return of travelers’ influx to the region.

“The region’s annual tourist arrivals, domestic and foreign, in 2022 increased by 177% to 1.66 million from 599,000 in 2021,” Cariño said in a statement.

Cariño said the continued easing of pandemic-related mobility restrictions also led to increased demand for travel and tourism-related services in the region.

She described the expansion of Northern Mindanao’s economy last year as a sign of the region’s “further recovery from the pandemic and its resilience amid external headwinds.”

The Philippine Statistics Authority-10, meanwhile, also recorded Northern Mindanao’s services sector with a growth of 10.1 percent in 2022, describing it as a signal of the region’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. (Nef Luczon/PNA)

Investments in NorMin still up despite COVID-19, says NEDA

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, (March 1/PIA) – “For the last year 2020, our Board of Investments (BOI) in region 10 reported that we have investment pledges amounting to P32 billion. We are [ranked] no. 4 nationwide and no. 1 in Visayas and Mindanao area, indicating that our investors have confidence in our region,” said National Economic Development Authority (NEDA)-10 Regional Director Mylah Faye Aurora Cariño.

In a recently held virtual press conference of the Northern Mindanao Inter-Agency Task Force for COVID-19, Cariño said the investors are still interested in putting up their investments in the region despite the threat of COVID-19.

Among the projects approved as reported by BOI are the expansions of energy generating companies and a medical service [company].

Cariño also shared that many investors had processed their proposed investments in 2020 but were affected by the pandemic; however, they have resumed this year.

“Aside from those projects, a medical facility in Bukidnon might also open this year, and a food [company] is under negotiation and has resumed its processing this year. PHIVIDEC also has several projects in the pipelines, and they have approved the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) to put up a campus at Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, which will boost further the confidence of industries in our region,” she added.

The lady NEDA-10 director sees region 10 can recover following the re-opening of its economy (JAKA/PIA10).