Stakeholders gather to craft Philippine and Calabarzon Regional Development Plan
NEDA Regional Director Luis G. Banua gives his welcome message to guests and participants to the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) Region IV-A consultation on 24 November (left) while NEDA Director Brenda Mendoza of the Trade, Industry and Services Staff presented the salient features of the PDP and Ambisyon Natin 2040 (right).

The NEDA Region IV-A held back-to-back consultations for the Calabarzon Regional Development Plan (RDP) and the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 on 23 and 24 November at NDN Grand Hotel, Sto. Tomas, Batangas. The consultations gathered around 200 participants from government, private sector and NGOs to provide inputs and recommendations to both plans which are currently being formulated.

During the Calabarzon RDP consultation, participants identified additional programs and projects, indicators and targets. The chapters were reviewed for consistency and cross cutting issues in the five parallel breakout group workshops. At the end of the consultation, the regional planning committees presented the actions to be taken to address issues on the content of the chapters from the other groups.

In the PDP consultation, Director Brenda R. Mendoza of the NEDA Central Office – Trade, Services and Industries Staff, presented the Ambisyon 2040 and framework and salient features of the PDP. During the breakout session, resource persons from national agencies presented the PDP plan chapters including the assessment of the sector in the previous administration, strategic framework, proposed strategies and key indicators. Regional stakeholders were able to provide inputs and comments on the draft chapters as well as raise regional and interregional issues and concerns that are proposed to be included in the PDP and those needing national government support or interventions.

Stakeholders gather to craft Philippine and Calabarzon Regional Development Plan
Mayor Fernando L. Mesa of Alabat, Quezon relays the current and future development projects in his municipality on agriculture, tourism and agri-tourism (left) while participants reviewed and provided inputs to the PDP and RDP 2017-2022 in workshop groups and presented their outputs in plenary.

The RDP consultation was joined by Hon. Fernando L. Mesa of Alabat, Quezon while the PDP consultation was graced by the expertise of the following national agency officials: CHED Director Napoleon Juanillo Jr., Deputy Clerk of Court Atty. Renelie Mayuga, and OIC-Director Remedios S. Endencia of the NEDA Central Office – Regional Development Staff.

The PDP and RDP plan are targeted to be finalized by January 2017. Thereafter, an investment plan for translation into programs and projects and results matrix for performance monitoring will also be prepared and published.

Theresa Jane Cajarte, NEDA Region IV-A | Wednesday, December 7, 2016