INTRODUCTION
I thank all of you for your participation in this conference today. The presence of executives from foreign and multi-national corporations, as well as the leaders of the local business community, is a strong testimony to our claim that “the Philippines is back in business”.

As you may learn for yourselves in the presentations for the South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos City Area (SOCSARGEN), we are doing better than that. SOCSARGEN has established the model for the profitable combination of modernized agriculture including fisheries, value added industry, and upgraded infrastructure within a growth center loaded with human skills and energy.
OUR COMMITMENTS TO SOCSARGEN’S GROWTH
I am personally committed to the accelerated development of Mindanao through the programs pursued by SOCSARGEN and our other economic growth centers.

I would like to invite you today to seriously consider SOCSARGEN as a viable location within the East ASEAN Growth Area for trade, investment and tourism. This government is providing both physical and policy support for SOCSARGEN’s take off.

The Philippine government is preparing the key infrastructure supports for investments in the area. With the help of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and others institutions, we have put in place close to 200 kilometers of well-paved arterial roads integrating the provinces of South Cotabato and Sarangani with General Santos City into one vibrant economic unit.

Of equal importance is the upgrading of the highway connecting SOCSARGEN to Davao City which commenced this year. This improved highway system will also connect southeastern Mindanao to Cagayan de Oro City in Northern Mindanao, thereby giving SOCSARGEN-based enterprises direct access to a consumer market of more than 15 million people through land transport.

With the construction of the new international airport and the upgrading of the facilities of the Makar Seaport — the groundbreaking for both having been done only days ago — and also with the investments by the private sector in telecommunications, we anticipate SOCSARGEN’s rapid transformation into a favored investment destination comparable with the best in South East Asia.

In this connection, I am pleased to note that among our early investors in the area is the internationally known Filipino financial and investment specialist, Lilia C. Clemente of Clemente Capital Group, who has earmarked US$5 million for a telecommunications, banking and/or power project.
THE PROMISE OF SOCSARGEN AND MINDANAO
In my twenty-four visits to the different provinces of Mindanao since I assumed office 21 months ago, i have become more and more convinced that the time of Mindanao is now. I therefore encourage the participants of this conference to make the time to visit SOCSARGEN and the rest of Mindanao to see for yourselves the business opportunities open to you. And bring your wife, husband, mother-in-law, kids, swimsuit, golf clubs and checkbooks.

Aside from the physical potential of Mindanao, allow me to point out to you the dynamic leadership underpinning SOCSARGEN and Mindanao’s growth.

With the able guidance of Agriculture Secretary Roberto Sebastian, Cabinet Officer for Regional Development (CORD) for Region XI who is also Chairman of the SOCSARGEN Development Board and Paul Dominguez, the Presidential Assistant for Mindanao, the area has generated in less than two years over p1.5 billion in investments from local businessmen alone. Our local governments in SOCSARGEN work as a team, and in cooperation with the national government, have gained for SOCSARGEN the distinction of completing infrastructure projects ahead of schedule and within budget.

The record of people’s participation as cooperatives and NGOs, and as individuals, as households and families, in accelerating livelihood, job generation and overall economic momentum in SOCSARGEN has become a good example for the rest of the country and is presently being replicated across Mindanao.

Your workshop covers four areas — agribusiness ventures; industrial and commercial enterprises; ASEAN joint ventures; and environment, infrastructure and planning projects — and should enable all of you to better appreciate the potential of the whole area.
A PILLAR OF EAGA’S SUCCESS
One of the most significant advantages of SOCSARGEN is its strategic location in the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA).

EAGA, or eagle as many like to call it for euphony, is one of the most exciting economic growth centers in ASEAN today. This initiative for sub-regional economic development supports cross-border economic cooperation among Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

The EAGA sub-region covers one of the most resource-rich areas in ASEAN. It is blessed with marine, forest, agricultural and mineral resources which have yet to be tapped.

The EAGA plan is not something new; it is actually only a revival of the fourteenth century trade principally focused on spices among the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia. And we hope to capitalize upon a shared tradition in the past to unify us once more with our East Asian neighbors through economic cooperation for our mutual benefit.

I am deeply inspired, as president of 65 million Filipinos, a great majority of whom are Christians and Muslims, that two great events — Lent and Ramadan — have converged at this time to provide brighter prospects for peace and unity. We have no reason to fail in this quest, which is to develop a truly happy and beneficent nation for all Filipinos and our friends, and the coming generations!

SOCSARGEN, therefore, gives our investors an ideal staging point from which to direct their operations in the East ASEAN sub-region.

The formalization of EAGA will be the subject of a meeting of ministers and senior officials of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and our country set for March 24 – 26 in Davao City. This will culminate in the signing of a memorandum of understanding, in which Secretary Roy Navarro of Trade and Industry will be the principal Philippine signatory.

As further proof of EAGA’s confidence in SOCSARGEN’s growth, we witnessed today the signing of two joint venture agreements between Philippine and Indonesian enterprises: one, a regional “cold” network to serve as infrastructure support for our region’s fisheries development, and second, an East ASEAN business magazine to be based in General Santos. I have no doubt that these endeavors will grow fast as support institutions.

With EAGA well on the way, now is the time to invest in SOCSARGEN and be part of the action. Your investment will not only help our people in the area but also make SOCSARGEN a pillar of EAGA’s success.
CLOSING
Mindanao as a whole surely deserves the title “a gateway to opportunity”, with the Davao-SOCSARGEN corridor becoming its fastest-growing component. I thus call on everyone here to join in the excitement of being a part of Mindanao’s growth. To all those involved in SOCSARGEN’s development, I say: continue and strive even harder so that SOCSARGEN can make an even more significant contribution to the realization of “Philippines 2000!!!”.

Mabuhay ang ” SOCSARGEN 2000!!!”

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.

Maraming salamat.