Davao City - Indonesia gears up for the conduct of the 17th Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) and 13thMinisters Meeting (MM) in Makassar Indonesia this coming November 4-6 thisyear.
Preparations for the upcoming Senior Officials and Ministers meeting were discussed during a National Secretariats meeting here recently participated by the officials of the four-member country and the BIMP-EAGA Business Council (BEBC).
The 3rd BIMP-EAGA Local Government Forum will also be conducted in November back-to-back with Senior Officials and Ministers meeting. ABIMP-EAGA Products Exhibition will also be mounted to showcase BIMP-EAGA trade, tourism and investment potentials.
Last year, Philippines hosted the BIMP-EAGA Investment Conference in Davao City while the Local Government Forum was hosted by Koronadal in South Cotabato. "Indonesia will need all the support and assistance it can get from EAGA member countries to make the conduct of the Senior Officials and Ministers Meeting in Indonesia a similar success," Firman Tamboen, Indonesian Senior Official for Investment and Public-Private Sector Development said.
Officials from the national secretariat in Indonesia said it will coordinate closely with the member countries to also generate participation in various SOM and MM events.
The BEBC also announced during the meeting that coinciding SOM and MM,BIMP-EAGA Community-Based Ecotourism Conference will also be held on October30 to November 1 in Manado, Indonesia.
BEBC said the event aims to raise awareness of the opportunities for land and marine-based ecotourism development in the sub-region. The conference will also highlight benefits in developing a win-win partnership in ecotourism between local communities, private sector and public sector.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) also reported in the meeting its plan to conduct a Strategic Partner Forum back to back with the SOM and MM in November.
ADB said the forum`s objective is to mobilize development partners and external partners and attract them to support BIMP-EAGA development.
Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph (July 26, 2008)