LGSP-LED deepens economic collaboration

By Provincial Media Relations Center
January 25, 2012

TACLOBAN CITY  –  The Local Government Support Program for Local Economic Development (LGSP-LED) pushes for private sector-academe partnerships for local government units to deepen economic collaboration and to help fuel local economic development.

The provincial government of Leyte hosted on Tuesday the LGSP-LED Forum on Engaging the Private Sector and Academe to share concrete Filipino, Canadian and international examples and experiences on how the LGUs can link with the private sector to grow and diversify their local economies resulting in more investments, jobs and an increased tax base.

The forum’s speakers were global expert on developing creative rural economies Dan Taylor and Leyte Gov. Carlos Jericho Petilla.

In his lecture, Taylor shared his experiences in growing local economies, emphasizing the role of government as enabler and facilitator of the process.

Taylor espoused that as “economies and the practice of economic development change, communities must look at all of their assets both performing and underperforming, and determine which ones can be harnessed as community and economic building blocks”.

Gov. Petilla, on the other hand, shared Leyte’s experience in partnering with the academe in the challenging work of human resource development to ensure that job skills match the needs of the local industries.

The governor shared that the province has continuously worked with state colleges and universities in the region to diversify their offered courses to address the employee needs of existing and operational industries in and outside the region.

The LGSP-LED forum was also an opportunity to introduce the upcoming Guide for LGUs on Formulating a Local Investment and Incentives Code. The code, it was learned, is a proactive measure to draw both local and foreign investments especially in priority area in a locality.

Select LGU alliances, namely the designated Local economic and Investment Promotions Officers, across the Philippines participated in the forum that included the province of Leyte, Allah Valley Landscape Development Alliance comprised of the provinces of South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat, Panglao-Dauis-Baclayon (PaDaYon) Marine Triangle of the province of Bohol and Northern Samar.