NMRDP 2023-2028 eyes inclusivity next
By Mike Baños
June 23, 2023 (CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY) Despite a significant contraction in the regional economy due to the pandemic, Northern Mindanao quickly recovered and has even surpassed its losses in over a year.
Regional Development Council 10 (RDC-10) Vice Chair and National Economic Development Authority Region 10 Director (NEDA-10) Mylah Faye Aurora B. Cariño said by the second year of the pandemic, the Northern Mindanao economy already recovered and was able to sustain its gains in 2022.
Cariño was addressing a query during the media forum following the ceremonial launching of the Northern Mindanao Regional Development Plan for 2023-2028 (NMRDP 2023-2028) held June 21, 2023 at SM Downtown Premier with stakeholders of RDC-10.
“Between 2015-2018 Region X achieved what was seemingly impossible at the time because we were able to bring down poverty by as much as 15 percentage points by 2018, which was our target for 2022. However, we were unable to sustain the momentum with the onset of the pandemic,” she noted.
RDC-X Vice Chair & NEDA-10 RD Mylah Faye Aurora B. Cariño (couirtresy of PIA-10)
Records show the region’s poverty incidence among population was already down to 23.1% by 2018 but rose to 26.1% during the pandemic, while poverty incidence among families which was 17.3% in 2018, rose to 19.2% in 2021.
Similarly, Cariño said the regional economy had already breached the trillion peso mark by 2022, even if it contracted by as much as P46 billion in 2020.
“However, by 2021, we were able to recover and in fact, our economy was able to expand by P51 billion or P5 billion more than what we lost in 2020,” she explained.
Despite the pandemic, investors continued to invest in Region 10. RDC-Chair Lanao del Norte Gov. Imelda Q. Dimaporo cited how the construction of the long-awaited Panguil Bay bridge has already resulted in an uptick of investments for the province’s capital town of Tubod, and practically all the coastline municipalities of the province.
“Our challenge is to be able to ensure that our people benefit from this development. That’s why we are ensuring inclusivity, we really want to further bring down our poverty,” Cariño said. “So we aim to reduce the 26% by 15% to 11% in the next six years, although this is calibrated.”
She noted that there should be programs and projects to be implemented. The NMRDP has strategies which are translated to specific programs and projects such as the 11 infrastructure flagship projects (the most by any region) which generate not only livelihood and employment, but also attract further investments.
She added how inflation at the regional level has been tempered and is aimed to be reduced further between 2-4% in the next six years.
“In terms of 400 plus indicators we used to measure the performance of Region 10 for the period 2017-2022, we were able to track that we met 65.6% of all our targets set in the plan. There were misses, but in terms of gains, we had more pluses rather than losses for the period,” she added.
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