By John Mark Escandor
LEGAZPI CITY, Nov. 16 (PNA) — Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal is confident this city can ride on the integration of the economies of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2015 but worries about the unstable supply of electricity in the coming years.
Rosal said if the problem of unstable supply of electric power is not resolved in 2015, this would pose a big problem because it would turn off investors to come to Albay.
“The preparation for the integration of the economy has already cascaded in the government departments like the adoption of K-12 program in education,” he said.
The economic integration of the ASEAN countries is the enforcement of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement signed in 1993 which would remove all tariffs imposed on products and services crossing the borders of member-countries of the ASEAN next year.
The AFTA binds Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to lift tariff restrictions on goods and services across borders.
Rosal said the 2015 AFTA implementation would actually open more economic opportunities for Legazpi City and Albay province because of the thrust in tourism.
He said the service sector, for example, is already upgrading their products and issuance of permits to open up business at the local government unit (LGU) level.
Rosal said Legazpi and Albay, which promote tourism products, will become competitive because ten years after the threat of major eruption of the Mayon Volcano, the LGUs here would have already completed all the rehabilitation that must be done — from infrastructure to flood control system to solid waste management.
“We are selling tourism. For example Legazpi City has been hosting an average of 20 national conventions for the last three years. The city has leveled up on how to handle tourists although there are still problems with the transport sector,” hesaid.
Rosal said the completion of the Southern Luzon International Airport in Daraga, Albay, would surely boost tourism in the province and the city.
He said the challenges in tourism will test Legazpi City and Albay province with the holding of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in December here. (PNA)