An economy on the bright side

In these days when good news on the economy seem to be scarce as political news hug the headlines, it is refreshing to hear news about our region's economy that did well in the last quarter of 2003.

Here they are.

Palay production grew by 6.4 percent, copra production by 3.1 percent and fish production by 8.4 percent.

Energy consumption rose by 17.2 percent.

Other indicators which give us a lot of hope are the increase in cellsites (62.5 percent) and increase in airline passengers (11.5 percent). Also on the rise are the number of registered motor vehicles (15.7 percent) and cargo traffic in our seaports (up by 8.1 percent).

Inflation is at a low 1.9 percent particularly for food (0.1 percent).

When our farm and fish production is doing well so does the whole region. This is expected from a region where about 60 percent of the labor force is in agriculture. Increased purchasing power in rural areas has a tremendous effect on the demand for goods and services regionwide.

The key, therefore, if we desire to stay on the bright side is to increase production in agriculture. And then better still, is to focus more and more on high value crops, vegetables and livestock raising.

This strategy will certainly be part of the Regional Development Plan that is now in the process of being revised.