ARMM gets help from USAID on export authority

COTABATO CITY — The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will help formulate the operational framework of the newly created Regional Economic Zone Authority (REZA) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Ishak Mastura, the regional trade secretary, said Robert Wuertz, chief of USAID’s economic and development unit, has given assurance that the Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program can assist in drafting the REZA’s implementing rules and regulations.

The REZA, patterned after the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), would extend tax incentives and special tariff discounts to viable business ventures in the region.

One of REZA’s trade mechanisms, as stated in its charter, the Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act 154, is the setting up of an export processing zone, free trade sites and an entry point for imports at the Polloc international port in Parang, Maguindanao.

"The REZA will give prospective foreign and local investors a conducive venue for their planned business ventures in the ARMM," Mastura said.

In a letter to the ARMM’s Department of Trade and Industry, Wuertz said the USAID’s central office has tasked Dr. Charles Feibel, a key official of their GEM Program, to see how the US government can assist in the formulation of REZA’s operating guidelines.

Mastura said the USAID’s support for the REZA will complement efforts of the US government in fostering peace and sustainable development in Southern Mindanao.

The US government earlier pledged a $30-million assistance package for war-devastated communities in Mindanao if Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front could forge a final peace agreement.

For eight years now, the USAID has been actively helping rehabilitate communities covered by the Sept. 2, 1996 peace pact between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front.