Norwegian envoy's visit seen to boost investor confidence in Basilan

COTABATO CITY — The Norwegian ambassador was in Basilan Wednesday for a peace dialogue with provincial officials working to maintain the province's reputation as the new investment frontier in the Bangsamoro region.

Ambassador Bjorn Staurset Jahnsen was accompanied to Isabela City in Basilan by embassy officials.

"For us, it was again a tacit proof that there is peace now in the province, pestered for decades by the Abu Sayyaf terror group whose presence faded dramatically with the surrender of more than 200 local members in very recent years," Basilan Gov. Jim Salliman said Thursday.

Wednesday's dialogue, dubbed “Sustaining Peace, Preparing Basilan’s Future,” was a joint initiative of the Norwegian government, the International Organization on Migration and the governor's office.

It was the Norwegian embassy’s first ever engagement in the island province.

The provincial government and the office of Deputy Speaker Mujiv Hataman, lone congressional representative of the province, had worked out the surrender in the past three years of more than 200 Abu Sayyaf members in Basilan via their local Program Against Violent Extremism, or PAVE.

The PAVE has the support of Muslim and Christian religious leaders in Basilan, the military’s Western Mindanao Command and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

Salliman said the involvement of Norwegian government officials in Wednesday’s peace dialogue will boost the confidence of foreign investors on Basilan’s business climate.

Ranking dignitaries from Spain, representing the Agency for International Development Cooperation-Embassy of Spain, most known as the AECID, also toured Basilan last December.

Their purpose was to inspect peace-building projects the AECID is implementing along with Salliman’s office, the Cotabato City-based Institute for Autonomy and Governance and other non-government organizations, among them a group led by Spanish Priest Angel Calvo of the Claretian congregation.

“We are so thankful to these foreign benefactors. Surely these dignitaries would not come over if they don’t feel it is safe for them to come and roam around,” Salliman said.

He said they are trying to connect the provincial government with more foreign benefactors that can help them push their local peace and development efforts forward.