LGSP-LED to push Guimaras to move faster

2009/06/02

LGSP-LED to push Guimaras to move faster

Iloilo City. (2 June) -- Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Austere Panadero said the launching of the Local Governance Support Program for Local Economic Development (LGSP-LED) will push the province of Guimaras to move faster with its economic development undertakings.

"This project is timely in the sense it will provide the province with the necessary inputs to address its economic development strategies," said Panadero.

Guimaras is one of the four local government units (LGUs) selected for participation in the first phase of the program out of the fifty LGUs and LGU alliances which applied for the program.

The LGSP-LED is an eight-year collaborative project of the Governments of Canada and the Philippines. It is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and implemented by the Canadian Executing Agency (CEA), in partnership with the DILG.

LGSP Field Director Marion Villanueva said the goal of the program is to foster efficient, responsive, transparent and accountable governance at all levels. Its purpose is to reduce poverty by strengthening local governance and supporting sustainable local economic development.

Governor Felipe Nava said that he is deeply honored that his province was chosen as one of the four LGUs that will benefit from the first phase of the program through the Guimaras Agri-Tourism Development Project.

"After all the efforts we’ve done, we were also in a way vindicated because there were still doubts on the direction to where Guimaras will go, I think, we prove that Guimaras is moving on the right direction being strengthened by being chosen as one of the four LGUs by the LGSP-LED when it comes to economic development plan," said Nava.

It can be recalled that the province was heavily affected by the oil spill brought about by the sinking of MT solar I in August 11, 2006.

Villanueva said after the launch in Guimaras, same activities will be held in the other three selected LGUs that include Zamboanga del Norte, Pangasinan and Bohol. The national launch of the program is set on June 22 in Metro Manila. (PIA)

Cabatuan.com - Kasimanwa.com - Austere Panadero