‘Big Deals’ Archives
The RD Com
There is a committee that provides policies recommendations to national authorities that is worth watching. This is the Regional Development Committee of the NEDA Board. The RD Com of the Visayas is composed of the 3 RDC Chairs, 3 Co-Chairs and 3 NEDA Regional Directors for the Visayas Region. The RD Com for the Visayas (there are also RD Coms in Luzon and Mindanao) will meet today at the Oriental Hotel – Leyte (beside MacArthur Park, Palo, Leyte) to discuss, among others: (a) the [...]
Coconut oil exports
Last week, this column mentioned the positive performance of coconut production and prices in 2011. While production was steady with very little increase, prices went up by 41 percent. This means that the income of coconut farmers increased significantly, a trend that will considerably reduce poverty incidence. If the trend continues and production increases by say, 10 percent annually then poverty in Eastern Visayas will reduce by a large extent from what it was in 2009 (latest data) [...]
Copra: impact on the economy
The economy of Eastern Visayas depends, to a large extent on copra production. About 31 percent or 649,030 hectares of this region is planted to coconut. It is our main crop. Thus when copra corriente prices went up by an average of 41.2 percent in 2011, it was good news for the region. Based on data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, copra production barely increased from 529,686,272 kilograms in 2010 to 529,978,721 kilograms in 2011 or an increase of only 0.06 [...]
A surprising 2011 performance in agriculture
As mentioned in this column last week, 2011 production in agriculture had mixed performances with palay production and aquaculture doing slightly well. Given the declines in livestock and poultry production and in commercial fishing, palay, coconut and rotcrop production coupled with increase in prices saved the year for agriculture. Palay production grew by 2.06 percent over that of 2010. Coconut (unhusked) production had practically the same production as in 2010, at a growth of only [...]
Another set of agricultural production indicators
This is part of the series in this column devoted to an assessment of the region’s economic performance in 2011. Rice production has been mentioned here. In today’s column it will be fish, livestock and poultry production. While 2011 was a good year for aquaculture (compared with 2010 production) with a substantial 20.3 percent increase as shown in the 2011 preliminary data of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics Office, commercial fishing declined by 10.6% and municipal fishing by [...]
Inflation and Employment, 2010 – 2011
It is interesting to take note of the inflation rates in December 2010 and December 2011. These statistics reveal a lot about the region’s economy. The region had a 3.1 percent average inflation rate in 2010. A year later, this was at 4.5 percent. This shows how the rate remained and well below 10 percent, the rate which usually means prices are outrunning increases in income and thus showing a reduction in the goods that people can buy. Compare this increase in prices to employment. [...]
Agriculture in 2011: a glimpse at palay production
The data is not all in yet, but there are already indications that the agriculture sector of Eastern Visayas had modest gains in 2011. In today’s column, the focus is on palay production. Palay production figures show a modest gain of 2.1 percent, comparing 2010 to 2011 production. From 964,145 metric tons in 2010, palay production went up to 984,017 metric tons in 2011. As usual and expected, Leyte topped the region with 526,762 metric tons produced in 2011 with Eastern Samar [...]
Teaching the Regional Development Plan
Making students aware of the Eastern Visayas Regional Development Plan (RDP), 2011-2016 is a way of ensuring that the Plan is understood by key members of the community. Given that the RDP is a source of ideas for a lot of subjects which are taken up in college, formally integrating it into the curriculum through selected subjects can significantly enhance learning that is relevant to the community where the students live. In the case of the RDP for Eastern Visayas, the main thrusts are [...]
The green economy: wrap-up
In the past few weeks, this column has focused on sustainable development particularly in the context of the “green economy”. This is an important topic for everybody. Sustainable development has three fundamental components: environmental protection, economic growth and social equity. Sustainable development focuses on finding strategies “to promote economic and social advancement in ways that avoid environmental degradation, over exploitation or pollution and sidelines less [...]
The green economy: infrastructure
To wrap-up the treatment in this column of various aspects of the green economy, today’s column is devoted to infrastructure: energy, waste and water. Under energy, an important element is to use a triple bottom-line approach in the programs and projects of the energy sector, e.g. economic, social and environmental aspects are factored in. The participants in the Consultation in Sustainable Development held in Tacloban City last November recommended that 80% of the royalty from the [...]
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