ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Dec 26 (PIA) – The P1.5 billion telecommunications project of EA Trilink Corp., a regional telecommunications company based in Marawi City with franchise from the ARMM Regional Assembly, was responsible for the single-biggest investment in the ARMM to date.
In its annual accomplishment report, the Regional Board of Investments of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (RBOI-ARMM) reported that for the first time ARMM private investments exceeded the one-billion peso mark in 2011.
The Bureau of Public Information revealed that the value of investments registered with the RBOI from January 2011 to December 2011 is Php 1,656.24 billion. Their project was registered in the second quarter of 2011.
During the third quarter of the year Matling Industrial and Commercial Corporation registered their P23.90 million project in Malabang, Lanao Del Sur for the modernization and expansion of their cassava starch factory by putting-up a biomass power plant.
In the last quarter of the year, the RBOI registered the P132.34 million investments in the modernization and expansion of the palm oil mill of Agumil Philippines, Inc. in Buluan, Maguindanao.
In the year 2011, it is also the first time that the RBOI has registered private investments consecutively in the ARMM from the second quarter to the fourth quarter of the year.
RBOI chairman Ishak Mastura, a lawyer holding the country’s only Masters of Law in Petroleum Law and Policy degree from Britain, attributed the record private investments in ARMM to the gains of the peace process, especially the peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
He said that the mechanisms on the ground of the GPH-MILF peace process, such as the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team, has boosted the confidence of investors since it managed to reduce to a minimum the armed encounters between the two and signaled the continuing stability of the region and the hopeful progress of the peace talks towards a just conclusion.
“The meeting of President Aquino and MILF Chairman Murad Ebrahim in Tokyo last August perked up a lot of business interest in the ARMM because investors are always looking to be first-movers in any green-field area”, he added.
Mastura further thanked former ARMM Acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Adiong for the support that the RBOI received in their endeavors to promote investments in the ARMM, and expressed his confidence that the incoming administration of OIC Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman will continue with their investment-friendly policies, even as Mastura has indicated his readiness to step-down to give way for the new regime in ARMM. (RBOI-ARMM/RVC-PIA9 ZBST)