Mining, power, agri in Mindanao Business Conference 2012 in Butuan City

ALL SYSTEMS GO.  Butuan City Vice Mayor Lemuel Lawrence Hernandez Furton during a press conference before the biggest business event in his city — the 21st Mindanao Business Conference

The annual 21st Mindanao Business Conference to be held on August 2-4 in Butuan City will draw up recommendations to improve the environment for mining, power and agriculture that will be submitted to Malacañang at the end of the summit, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), president Miguel Varela said.

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“We are hoping that of the many recommendations that have been put forward, we will be able to make things clearer before recommending to the President,” said Varela.
He said recommendations for mining may include holding auctions for exploration and extraction rights, requiring mining contractors to regularly submit operation and financial reports to ensure transparency, enforcing the primacy of national over local laws and directly remitting to local governments their share in royalties.
Recommendations for the energy sector include excluding from the government’s privatization policy the hydroelectric plants that provide more than half of Mindanao’s power supply and completing studies on the island’s long-delayed wholesale electricity spot market.
Those for the farm sector include setting up guarantee schemes for related projects and promptly releasing new guidelines for the use of the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund that are supposed to prevent recurrence of irregularities.
Varela said the summit should send the message that Mindanao is ready for more investments.