P3B worth of infra projects proposed for newly created Negros Island region

More than 80 road and infrastructure projects worth over P3 billion have been proposed by various sectors in local government units for endorsement to the Regional Development Council-Negros Island Region 18. 

Under its Coordinating Roads and Infrastructure Investments for Development (CR+ID), Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce (NOCCI) President Ed Du said the proposed projects will be presented to the RDC, which will push for its funding and inclusion in the General Appropriation Act in 2017.

Some 15 roads and infrastructure are prioritized in the list for each of the three districts of Negros Oriental, Du said.

The proposed projects include road networks, farm-to-market roads, roads to potential tourism sites, establishment of tourist information centers, trading posts, solar driers, and jetty ports.

The road networks were identified by each sector from the fisheries, high value crop, livestock and poultry, coconut, and tourism from the LGUs in a series of workshops that aggregated to a 280-kilometer stretch for the three districts.

Du said District 1 got a little over P1 billion worth of projects, while the remaining balance is, more or less, divided by Districts 2 and 3.

He disclosed that the next phase of the project will be a province-wide GPS-based infrastructure and industries mapping or business plotting, where tourists or investors can find any product and services offered in the province by using only their iPhones.

CR+ID is a collaboration project with The Asia Foundation (TAF) and NOCCI to assist the province in developing a tourism road-network map and infrastructure investments through the use of a value-chain analysis in identifying strategic road links.

TAF, with support from the Australian Embassy, provides assistance to provincial government to map strategic roads and infrastructure with the private or tourism sector.