COTABATO CITY — Leaders of influential business groups in the Bangsamoro region on Monday called on the autonomous region's newly appointed trade and agriculture ministers to roll out broad programs that would raise the productivity of farmers in communities long battered by decades of secessionist conflict.

Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulraof A. Macacua last week handed stewardship of the autonomous regional government's Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism (MTIT) to Faizal M. Padate and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR) to Ishak V. Mastura. The portfolios place the two ministers at the center of the region's socio-economic agenda: MTIT covers trade, investment and tourism, while MAFAR handles agriculture, fisheries and agrarian reform — the areas that the business groups' appeals directly address.

The two took their oaths as heads of the ministries on Friday last week in separate symbolic rites, each personally officiated by Mr. Macacua, held at the regional capitol of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in Cotabato City.

Ronald Hallid D. Torres, chairman of the influential Bangsamoro Business Council, widely known as the BBC, told reporters on Monday that he, other officials, and all members of the council's chapters across BARMM's five provinces and three cities would support Mr. Padate and Mr. Mastura, expressing confidence they would efficiently manage both ministries.

“Our appeal to both of them, as regional ministers, is to put in place programs that can improve the productivity of farmers in the autonomous region and help connect them firmly with traders who shall procure their products at fair prices,” Mr. Torres said.

Mr. Torres, who also serves as president of the multi-sector Regional Advisory Group of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said the group would assist Mr. Padate, MTIT-BARMM Director-General Rosslaini Alonto-Sinarimbo, and Mr. Mastura in enticing investors from outside the region to put up capital-intensive businesses across BARMM's five provinces and three cities.

Big groups of Chinese merchants in Cotabato City, the capital of BARMM, had likewise expressed support for the socio-economic thrusts of the two ministries that Mr. Padate and Mr. Mastura are set to manage.

“We appreciate the commitment of support for our ministry's community-empowerment missions from the business sector in the Bangsamoro region,” Mr. Mastura said.

Separately, Mohammad O. Pasigan, chairman of the Bangsamoro Regional Board of Investments under the BARMM government, said investors from different regions and from abroad had poured a total of P21.6 billion worth of investments into various parts of the Bangsamoro region from 2020 to 2026. The tally gives the region a track record to point to as business leaders such as Mr. Torres work to draw more outside capital into capital-intensive ventures.

“The capital inputs were for various businesses now operating in different areas in the region,” Mr. Pasigan said.

The business ventures established in BARMM by outside investors during that period generated employment for 12,320 workers, according to reports from Mr. Pasigan's office and the provincial offices of the region's Ministry of Labor and Employment.

Mr. Padate and Mr. Mastura separately told reporters that they would cooperate in improving the business potential of BARMM by pursuing the trade and agricultural productivity objectives of their respective ministries. How the two ministries respond to the productivity and fair-procurement appeals, and whether the pledges of support from the business council and merchant groups translate into programs on the ground, will be the immediate measure of the new lineup's socio-economic thrusts for the region's farmers.

Source: BusinessWorld, by John Felix M. Unson