DAGUPAN JOINS ASIA CEO FORUM IN MAKATI

DAGUPAN CITY – This city joined the province of Pangasinan in promoting the potentials of the province to foreign and local investors in the Asia CEO Forum held at Dusit Thai Hotel in Makati City on July 5.

MBTF JOINS ASIA CEO FORUM – Mayor Belen T. Fernandez (4^th from left),  along with other Pangasinan Local Chief Executives, namely  (from left) San Carlos City Mayor Joseres Resuello, Alaminos City Mayor Arthur Celeste, and Urdaneta City Mayor Amadeo Perez IV, Pangasinan Governor Amado I. Espino III (center), Harriet Abordo (5^thfrom left) of PEZA, Rey Untal (6^th from left) of IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines,  Manaoag Mayor Kim Amador (6^th from right), Binmaley Mayor Simplicio Rosario (7^th from right), Dasol Mayor Eric Versoza (8^thfrom right), Umingan Mayor Michael Cruz (9^th from right) and Raffy Baraan (2^nd from right) serves as one of the panelists in the Asia CEO Forum at Dusit Thai Hotel in Makati City on July 5 where she promoted the city to foreign and local investors as a zero corruption and red tape free city. (CIO photo by Jojo Tamayo)

As one of the panelists at the forum, Mayor Belen T. Fernandez presented Dagupan to some 150 local and foreign investors which include resorts property owners, food processing companies, renewable energy companies, and business process outsourcing industries among others.

Fernandez made a sales pitch for the city that Dagupan is a pool of talents, strong infrastructure and the presence of investors’ support services.

“In our city, we hate corruption that is why we have zero corruption and our city is red tape free,” said Fernandez.

With the city’s new Comprehensive Land Use Plan duly approved by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board in Resolution No. 945 series of 2017 on May 3, Dagupan is opening new gates of development in Lucao-Pantal as tourism growth center, Poblacion, Caranglaan-Tebeng and Bonuan area as the other new growth centers.

The growth center shall become the focus of more intensive policy interventions and investments to serve initially as the focus of decentralized services.

To prepare the city for the subsequent influx of investors in the city like SM and Almeria, Mayor Belen T. Fernandez created an Investment and Development Board to help ensure immediate approval of investments, provided all the requirements are fully complied with under the terms and conditions set by the city.

The city also established a one-stop customer-friendly center where processing of business permits are done swiftly without delay using only three methods of processing business applications, which eliminate red tape and  under- the-table transactions.

As a coastal city crisscrossed by seven river tributaries, Dagupan is now developing it’s tourism potential through the redevelopment of the Tondaligan Park in Bonuan, stretching up to the shoreline of Barangay Pugaro, an island barangay.

Mayor Belen has also considered the idea of introducing water sports activities including beach volleyball in the area as it was found to be a suitable area for holding such activities.

Based on the latest Philippine Competitiveness Index, Dagupan has been adjudged as the most improved cities in the region while its neighbors have noticeably declined.

From 2013 to 2016, the city made a big leap forward by landing in the number 15 spot among cities throughout the country in the Philippine Competitiveness Index.

Dagupan is now also being touted as the next wave city in the country for being in the top ten among the best locations for Information Technology and Business Process Management Industry next to Manila, Cebu, Clark and Bacolod City.

With an average monthly crime rate of 21.4 percent and crime solution efficiency of 86.22 percent, the city remains to be the safest city to live and invest.

With the city’s consistent exponential surplus, Mayor Belen intends to make Dagupan as the first one billion peso economy among towns and cities in Pangasinan by 2019.

“I share the belief and conviction of many that when leaders are leading by example, sincerely working together for the best interest of our city by COMPLETELY ERADICATING RED TAPE and CORRUPTION in all of our government processes, then progress is inevitable, said Fernandez. (Joseph C. Bacani/CIO July 7, 2017)