The head of the Regional Board of Investment (RBOI) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is on a week-long trade mission in Australia to urge business executives there to invest in the region to help address the root causes of the chronic security problem in the region.
RBOI chief Ishak Mastura, along with other economic and trade officials of the country, flew to Australia on Sunday, August 6, to participate in the week-long trade and investment mission that is being organized by the Board of Investments (BOI) – Manila under the Philippine Investment Promotion Plan (PIPP) program.
Mastura said the trade mission came at a critical time when Mindanao, particularly Marawi City, is facing a crisis.
“The Australian newspapers are full of stories and opinion columns that are referring to the Marawi Crisis as the Islamic State (IS) presence at their doorstep due to the proximity of Mindanao, particularly. to Darwin in Northern Australia,” he said, as the Marawi Crisis entered Day 76 on Sunday.
Government forces have been fighting the ISIS-inspired Maute Group and its allies in Marawi City since May 23.
“At the same time, there is increasing public call for Australia to be more involved in Mindanao in all spheres of activity from security to the economy. So we want to take advantage of such high public awareness in Australia regarding Marawi and the ARMM,” Mastura added.
ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman said they are encouraging Australia to invest in agriculture, particularly in the cattle industry, since Australia has a well-developed Halal industry revolving around the supply of Halal meat to the Middle East.
“We can raise cattle cheaply in the ARMM or we can import them from Australia and process them into Halal meat products to be re-distributed around the region since ARMM and Mindanao are geographically at the heart of Muslim Southeast Asian countries, who all belong to the BIMP-EAGA or the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippine East ASEAN Growth Area,” he said. (Darwin Wally T. Wee / MindaNews)
