• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The National Economic and Development Authority established its presence in the Negros Island Region (NIR) with the opening of its regional office at Carlos Hilado Memorial State University (CHMSU) Alijis campus in Bacolod City Feb. 6.
The event was highlighted by the signing of the usufruct agreement between NEDA and CHMSU, represented by NEDA Western Visayas director and NIR concurrent OIC Arecio Casing Jr. and university president Norberto Mangulabnan.
The NEDA-NIR office is housed in Room 101, Academic Building 1 of CHMSU Alijis.
“We have to help each other in one way or another, especially now that we have a new region. We welcome NEDA to our humble school. Treat this place as your new home in NIR,” Mangulabnan said as he assured economic development officials that CHMSU will be of assistance.
This is also part of the university’s commitment to the transition to the new region.
Carlos Bernardo Abad Santos, NEDA undersecretary for Regional Development Group, who witnessed the agreement signing, thanked CHMSU for supporting the transition of the NEDA NIR office.
“This generous gesture of CHMSU shows how important the partnership between government and the academe in the initial stages of administering and operating the different regional offices of line agencies,” he said.
Casing said in a press release from CHMSU that the NIR transition team is challenged to regain the economic development that was halved from Western Visayas after the establishment of the new region.
While Central Visayas still stands as a robust regional economy, Casing said he hopes to draw the spillover growth of the region to NIR.
The newest administrative region is composed of Negros Occidental and the highly-urbanized Bacolod City from Western Visayas, and Negros Oriental and Siquijor from Central Visayas.
“Our challenge is to create a synergy between Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor,” he said, adding that they aim to create a bigger sum, a bigger pie than the sum of its parts. | CGC
