By IRMA ISIP

Mindanao shippers want the government to allot more money in building roads linking ports to farmlands.

Edwin Capili, regional governor for Western Mindanao of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the government should allocate 32 percent of the Mindanao budget for infrastructure instead of the current 20 percent.

He said lack of logistics and cold chain facilities linking Mindanao to Manila is hampering growth of business in the region.

In a press conference announcing the conduct of the Mindanao Business Conference on August 27 to 28 in Dipolog City, Capili said there is a lot of room for investments in the establishment of silos and post-harvest facilities to accommodate agricultural and aquaculture products.

Western Mindanao alone accounts for 70 percent of aquaculture products such as abalone, shrimps, seaweed, sardines among others. Mindanao is also known for the production of high-value fruits.

"Most of the six-point agenda of the USAID-funded Growth for Equity in Mindanao in fact pertain to infrastructure and logistics.

GEM recommends the increase in infrastructure spending to 35 percent of the national budget from 28 percent. This is more than double than the 15 percent in 1999.

GEM also noted the need to work with different regional development councils to comment on different infrastructure projects in Mindanao to enable to provide more value to farmers and products. GEM said shipping and logistics still expensive to ship to Singapore and Hong Kong than to Manila because rates have been deregulated. For this reason, GEM strongly suggests to come up with cargo consolidation to be able to haggle rates.

GEM also supports the roll on-roll off but stressed there should be move roads connecting to ports.

GEM is also working on ways to entice business-processing firms to locate in Mindanao, specifically Davao and Cagayan de Oro.