Asian Bloc Works To Promote Regional Tourism

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 14 Aug) - To offer alternative options to the more prominent tourist destinations in Asia, such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, travel agencies and tour operators in the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) will formally converge this year to develop and market innovative and competitive tour packages across the EAGA.

Focusing on Culture, Adventure and Nature (CAN), the establishment of the BIMP-EAGA Consortium of Tour Operators and Travel Agents is projected by the BIMP-EAGA Tourism Council (BETC) as a strategic arm that will seek ways to maximize the region’s potentials as an alternative to mainstream tourist destinations in Asia.

This was one of the major results of the BIMP-EAGA Tourism Value Chain Seminar and the 4th BIMP-EAGA Joint Tourism Development Cluster Meeting held last month in Brunei Darussalam.

The consortium’s function in maximizing EAGA’s potentials as a tourist destination will be further explored on Wednesday's roundtable discussion on BIMP-EAGA CAN in Davao City, as part of an effort to establish joint tourism marketing and promotions for Mindanao and Palawan.

Mary Ann Montemayor, chairperson of the Philippine side of the BIMP-EAGA Tourism Council (BETC), said the meeting will identify major CAN destinations in Mindanao and Palawan that will be the major focus of marketing and promotion in BIMP-EAGA with Davao City, Zamboanga City and Palawan province as gateways.

As the consortium will be officially launched during the 3rd BIMP-EAGA TRAVEX in November 2007 in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, BETC Chairs have now started tapping active travel tour operators and travel agents for membership.

For the Philippine side of the BETC, three tourism organization heads from the Davao Association of Tour Operators (DATO), Davao Tourism Association Agencies (DTAA), and the National Association Independence of Travel Agents (NAITAS), Davao, have already given their commitment to the consortium.

The DOT regional directors in Mindanao and Palawan, on the other hand, will identify their respective travel agents and tour operators for the consortium.

Montemayor said the identified consortium may be able to develop competitive tour packages on certain conditions.

First, commercial flights should be made available, as this will set the cost of the tour package. While travel agents can still develop tour packages without ready flights, the competitiveness will be in question, given the cost to be considered for connecting flights.

Second, should flights be available, acceptable arrangements would have to be undertaken by airline companies with tour operators and travel agents, particularly on promotional ticket rates.

And third is the presence of committed travel agents who could vigorously sell these tour packages in the market, should be secured. Once these conditions are met, the consortium will be able to develop competitive tour packages for BIMP-EAGA.

But with the threats of terrorism and kidnappings of foreigners and the constant travel warnings by Western and Asian embassies on their citizens in the troubled refion of Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago, tourists may be forced to skip the Philippines from their itinerary.

Indonesia Opens New Mindanao Air Route

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 30 Nov) – Trade officials from the Philippines and the Indonesia hailed the launching of a new air route between the two countries.

An Indonesian airliner, Sriwijaya Air, launched its maiden flight from Manado to Davao City in the southern Philippines on Thursday. Both countries are members of the East Asean Growth Area along with Brunei and Malaysia.

Filipino officials said the new air link was part of an agreement signed by the two countries during a trade mission under the Jose Abad Santos-Glan-Sarangani (JAGS-CT) Cooperation Triangle to Indonesia in September.

"The new additional flight directly connecting Davao and Manado is an affirmation of growing vibrancy on the potentials for tourism, trade and investment within the BIMP-EAGA,” Undersecretary Virgilio Leyretana, chairman of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo), said in a statement.

The Jakarta-based Sriwijaya Air uses Boeing 737-200 to provide an alternate service the Davao-Manado route, which is currently being served by Merpati Airlines. For its regular run, Sriwijaya is scheduled to fly every Monday and Thursday, arriving in Davao City at 01000 hrs and leaving for Manado at 01045 hrs.

The airline can accommodate 124 passengers and cargo of up to 3.5 tons. The new Davao-Manado route adds to the existing air and sea linkages between Mindanao and Indonesia.

Last month, both countries also opened a sea route from Glan town in Sarangani province to Tahuna in Bitung, Indonesia.

"Sriwijaya's Davao-Manado flight is expected to contribute to our aim of enhancing trade and socio-cultural links between the two nations. I hope this air route will be sustained, as it will certainly boost Mindanao's ties with Indonesia," Leyretana said.

Filipino and Russian’s Mosphil Aero Inc. this month also announced a plan to add new routes in Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia and probably other countries in Southeast Asia. Mosphil said it is only waiting the signing of the Fifth Freedom Traffic Rights by members of the sub-regional trade bloc of the East Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Growth Area (EAGA) during the ASEAN Summit in Cebu City next month.

Glenn Lamela, Mosphil's director on marketing and sales, said the new routes will even include those outside the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, Philippines- East ASEAN Growth Area or the BIMP-EAGA structure.

"The signing of the fifth freedom traffic right will allow us to operate internal flights within the four member countries of the BIMP-EAGA, and this is a big opportunity for us," Lamela told the Mindanao Examiner.

The Mindanao Business Council said that the Fifth Freedom Traffic Rights agreement will focus on the establishment of scheduled passenger services between Davao City-Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia)-Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei Darussalam) and between Pontianak (Indonesia)-Kuching (Malaysia)-Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei Darussalam).

Lamela said Mosphil is also planning to launch the Zamboanga-Kota-Kinabalu- Brunei, and Davao-Kota-Kinabalu-Manado routes and local flights from Zamboanga to Davao, Zamboanga-Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga-Cebu, Cotabato-IloIlo, and Boracay-Zamboanga routes.

"It is our priority to strengthen and materialize the traffic and the air-linkages within the BIMP-EAGA. The Philippine government is looking at Mosphil as the model to be presented during the ASEAN summit comes this December," Lamela said.

Mosphil is currently operating the Zamboanga-Jolo route twice a week. It opened the flight just in September. "We wanted to increase the inflow of traffic to Zamboanga City," Lamela said, adding they wanted to establish Zamboanga City as hub of Mosphil operation. (Mindanao Examiner)

Sibugay Province To Become Center Of Oil Palm Industry In South RP

ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY (Darwin Wee / 04 Oct) - Zamboanga Sibugay is eyeing to become the center of oil palm industry in Zamboanga Peninsula, having at least 113,000 hectares open for investors to develop oil palm plantations.

The oil palm industry project is being implemented by the Sibugay Land Resource Development Corporation (SLRDC) - a consortium of local government unit and non-government organizations in the province - about 110 kms east of here - which aims to partner and lure foreign inventors to put up agri-business in Zamboanga Sibugay.

In an interview SLRDC's president Bennet D. Santander said, in addition to the 113, 000 hectares, the group with the help of the Philippine Coconut Authority and the Bureau of Plant Industry, have already identified at least 73 hectares for nursery that will serve as the seed bank of oil palm seeds which will supply the peninsula.

The plan of becoming the center of oil palm industry in Zamboanga Peninsula was an offshoot of a meeting during the formulation of the Oil Palm Development Roadmap for Mindanao that was agreed by different oil palm growers and government agencies in Davao City late last year.

Mr. Santander, who is also the provincial economic planning officer, said the group is also planning to develop this year at least 4,000 hectares for oil palm plantation to jumpstart the project within three years.

He said the group has already sealed an agreement with the Malaysia-based Agriculturist Incorporated in Sandakan district to develop the initial 4,000 hectares for oil palm plantations. It is expected to bring about P1 billion worth of investments in the province.

"The initial 4,000-hectare joint venture projects will jumpstart the oil palm industry in Zamboanga Sibugay," he said here during a two-day workshop at the weekend.

He said the investment will fund the initial establishment of oil palm mill, a 40-hectare oil palm nursery station, fertilizers, and other infrastructures for the initial 4,000-hectare oil palm plantation. The group is targeting this year to import at least 1 million oil palm seeds from Malaysia because of its quality compared to those from Indonesia.

However, he said with the existing ban on exportation of oil palm seeds in Malaysia has become a stumbling block for the development for the project.

Mr. Santander said they have already presented the proposal to lift the ban during the BIMP-EAGA's top officials Third Natural Resource Development Cluster meeting in August in Palawan island in the central Philippines, but this was subjected to further discussion in the upcoming 14th BIMP-EAGA's Senior Minister Officials Meeting which will be held on the first week of November in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

Oil palm is one of the four flagship projects under the BIMP-EAGA's Action Plan 2006-2010. Others include Halal chicken production, seaweeds, and the virgin coconut oil, according to the officials of the BIMP–EAGA Business Council.

Mr. Santander expressed confident that the Malaysian government would grant them a partial lifting of the existing ban, this came after the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC)-the biggest downstream palm oil industry in Malaysia —expressed need of raw crude palm oil and palm kernel.

The Malaysian oil palm growers have only the capacity to contribute roughly 50 percent of the Industrial demand, and they are seeking other countries, particularly, the member countries of the BIMP-EAGA to provide them raw crude palm oil and palm kernel for their productions.

The POIC area is currently housing several locators which are into palm kernel crushing, biomass, refinery, bulking and warehousing. They also produce different kinds of oil palm finish products, such as in bio-diesel, oleo chemicals, coco butter, bio-fuel, margarine, cooking oil, and cosmetics, he said.

POIC's officials have already indicated there willingness to help us develop our oil palm industry here to become one of their 'upstream producers' of raw oil palm.

One of the factors Zamboanga Sibugay has is the proximity to the POIC's areas in which are based in Lahad Datu, Sandakan and Kimanis, with just 16 to 20 hours per shipment coming from Zamboanga Peninsula," he said.

He said the initial oil palm project would create at least 2,000 jobs and an average of annual income gross of about P250 million to P300 million.

Mr. Santander said they are targeting to develop an additional 18, 000 hectares of oil palm plantations. "The expected investment package will be about P4.5 billion and it will create more than 15, 000 jobs opportunities," he said.

On the other hand, he said another stumble block they are trying to address is the demand of the Malaysian government to have at least 70% ownership of the oil palm industry that will be established in any parts of the country if it is under a joint venture with Malaysia, which runs contrary to our Board of Investments policy.

"We have to address the trade barriers in order for the oil palm industry to take off," he said.

To give solutions to the trade barriers, he said the group is currently drafting a memorandum of understanding between the Philippines and Malaysia during the BIMP-EAGA's Senior Minister Officials meeting this year.Under the understanding Malaysia will provide both the financial capacity and the technological capability.

"They will shoulder all funds to develop an oil palm plantations in Zamboanga Sibugay, including the development of the 73-hectare for nursery which amounts to P50 million to P60 million," he said.

The province, on the other hand, will provide the land and the labor force. The understanding also covers the income sharing agreement of the two countries, he added. (Mindanao Examiner)