International tourism conferees predict peace efforts to boost Mindanao tourism

COTABATO CITY — The government’s continuing effort to peacefully resolving the nagging security problems in the South can catalyze the growth of Mindanao’s tourism industry, participants to an on-going international tourism conference here said yesterday.

The conference, participated in by tourism officials from member-states of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) and aimed at formulating tie-up eco-tourism programs among the four countries, is also expected to boost Central Mindanao’s economy, badly affected by last year’s hostilities between state and Muslim rebel forces.

Sohura Dimaampao, director of the Department of Tourism in Region 12, said they have discussed extensively various concerns during the conference, including cross-border agreements, air and sea linkages, visa requirements, and tourism cooperation among the four countries.

Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia are members of the influential Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), which helped broker the Sept. 2, 1996 peace pact between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front in Jakarta.

Malaysia, too, is mediating between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, who graced the opening ceremony of the BIMP-EAGA tourism conference, said President Arroyo’s on-going peace overture with Muslim groups in Mindanao has ushered in improvements in the island’s tourism and investment climate.

"And this international activity is very important because the participants from cooperating countries will see for themselves that the troubles in Mindanao are just confined in certain isolated areas and does not engulf the whole region," said Dureza, who chairs the government’s peace panel negotiating with the MILF.

Malaysia’s delegation to the tourism conference is led by Abang Rashim Abang Morshidi, while Indonesia is represented by Yabez Tosia and his entourage.

Not a single delegate from Brunei showed up for the activity. The DOT 12 here cannot give any reason for the absence of a representative from the oil-rich country.