EAGA members revive exchanges

DAVAO CITY — Since a lull in late 1997 due to the Asian economic crisis, trade exchanges and cultural missions among member-countries of the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) are now on again.

"The EAGA is now in the revival stage. We are seeing more and more exchanges these days," said Romeo Montenegro, communications chief of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco).

Medco serves as the country’s secretariat of the EAGA, a geo-economic grouping composed of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Montenegro is optimistic that meetings of senior officials and ministers of the EAGA members will be revived in June or July.

President Arroyo has declared the last week of March as EAGA Week to mark EAGA’s founding on March 24, 1994. — Edith Regalado